Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

One hair-raising metaphysical nightmare movie from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primordial dread when unrelated individuals become proxies in a demonic contest. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a intense depiction of resistance and timeless dread that will remodel terror storytelling this autumn. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and cinematic film follows five people who regain consciousness trapped in a remote hideaway under the oppressive power of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Be warned to be immersed by a big screen event that intertwines soul-chilling terror with spiritual backstory, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a long-standing concept in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the entities no longer emerge outside the characters, but rather within themselves. This echoes the haunting version of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal internal warfare where the tension becomes a unforgiving clash between innocence and sin.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five individuals find themselves isolated under the unholy control and possession of a secretive being. As the survivors becomes unable to deny her influence, cut off and chased by terrors mind-shattering, they are driven to endure their worst nightmares while the final hour relentlessly ticks toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety escalates and bonds erode, pressuring each protagonist to examine their identity and the structure of volition itself. The threat intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a terror ride that connects mystical fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to tap into core terror, an power older than civilization itself, filtering through psychological breaks, and confronting a darkness that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra involved tapping into something far beyond human desperation. She is clueless until the entity awakens, and that turn is harrowing because it is so private.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing customers worldwide can watch this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has earned over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, giving access to the movie to lovers of terror across nations.


Tune in for this visceral descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to uncover these ghostly lessons about our species.


For previews, production news, and promotions from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 season domestic schedule fuses old-world possession, signature indie scares, and Franchise Rumbles

Running from survivor-centric dread rooted in ancient scripture through to returning series and focused festival visions, 2025 is emerging as the most complex combined with deliberate year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios stabilize the year with familiar IP, concurrently subscription platforms front-load the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as archetypal fear. Meanwhile, horror’s indie wing is riding the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are surgical, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium dread reemerges

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

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 rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

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

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trends to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
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 surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The approaching fear release year: Sequels, original films, and also A jammed Calendar geared toward nightmares

Dek The brand-new scare calendar stacks at the outset with a January logjam, before it flows through the warm months, and carrying into the holiday frame, balancing marquee clout, creative pitches, and data-minded alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are relying on tight budgets, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that pivot these pictures into mainstream chatter.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror has grown into the steady play in annual schedules, a category that can spike when it hits and still mitigate the exposure when it does not. After 2023 reminded leaders that responsibly budgeted genre plays can steer the national conversation, the following year sustained momentum with visionary-driven titles and surprise hits. The energy pushed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries proved there is space for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to one-and-done originals that translate worldwide. The aggregate for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across players, with clear date clusters, a spread of recognizable IP and new concepts, and a refocused emphasis on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now works like a versatile piece on the slate. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, yield a tight logline for trailers and shorts, and over-index with audiences that line up on Thursday nights and sustain through the subsequent weekend if the movie connects. Post a production delay era, the 2026 configuration demonstrates belief in that logic. The calendar launches with a crowded January corridor, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while making space for a September to October window that extends to All Hallows period and beyond. The arrangement also underscores the expanded integration of indie distributors and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and scale up at the proper time.

Another broad trend is brand curation across shared universes and long-running brands. Major shops are not just pushing another entry. They are shaping as story carry-over with a heightened moment, whether that is a title design that conveys a new tone or a lead change that links a next entry to a initial period. At the very same time, the helmers behind the marquee originals are leaning into physical effects work, practical gags and concrete locations. That interplay gives 2026 a robust balance of assurance and discovery, which is what works overseas.

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

Paramount establishes early momentum with two big-ticket bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, positioning the film as both a baton pass and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative posture signals a memory-charged campaign without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Watch for a push stacked with brand visuals, early character teases, and a two-beat trailer plan slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will hunt wide appeal through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick switches to whatever owns the conversation that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, melancholic, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that evolves into a perilous partner. The date positions it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s team likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that fuses attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a public title to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a later trailer push that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has made clear that a raw, in-camera leaning style can feel top-tier on a middle budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around canon, and monster design, elements that can boost premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a sequence that boosts both premiere heat and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about in-house releases and festival additions, slotting horror entries toward the drop and turning into events debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters More about the author January 23, 2026, before turning to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a situational basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 lane with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a standard theatrical run for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the September weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has helped for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the team and cast is steady enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set frame the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not foreclose a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was trusted. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and grow 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 two-step approach, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to cross-link entries through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Technique and craft currents

The creative meetings behind 2026 horror indicate a continued emphasis on practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates aura and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a tease that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that elevate razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 foggy reset amid heftier brand moves. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the variety of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Post-January through spring load in summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s digital partner shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography 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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss work to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance of power swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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 retelling that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting tale that toys with the fright of a child’s tricky perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a unlucky family caught in residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why the 2026 timing works

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify clippable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will stack across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

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

Exhibitors respond well to 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 justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, and picture 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 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.