Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, landing October 2025 on premium platforms

An hair-raising spectral nightmare movie from storyteller / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an forgotten malevolence when guests become conduits in a dark struggle. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of resistance and mythic evil that will redefine terror storytelling this fall. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and tone-heavy fearfest follows five teens who wake up stuck in a far-off cottage under the malignant rule of Kyra, a mysterious girl overtaken by a time-worn scriptural evil. Be warned to be drawn in by a visual venture that unites instinctive fear with ancient myths, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a classic fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the forces no longer arise beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the malevolent aspect of the victims. The result is a relentless mind game where the emotions becomes a relentless face-off between heaven and hell.


In a desolate backcountry, five figures find themselves marooned under the ominous sway and possession of a unknown female presence. As the cast becomes vulnerable to withstand her power, severed and tormented by powers unimaginable, they are obligated to battle their core terrors while the hours ruthlessly ticks toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease builds and alliances dissolve, requiring each individual to reflect on their true nature and the structure of volition itself. The danger surge with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that combines otherworldly panic with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to evoke basic terror, an threat from ancient eras, feeding on our weaknesses, and wrestling with a darkness that challenges autonomy when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra demanded embodying something beyond human emotion. She is in denial until the invasion happens, and that shift is shocking because it is so emotional.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring users anywhere can get immersed in this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its initial teaser, which has received over 100,000 views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Experience this life-altering exploration of dread. Watch *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to face these fearful discoveries about free will.


For bonus footage, production insights, and social posts directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: 2025 across markets stateside slate braids together biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, set against returning-series thunder

Spanning endurance-driven terror infused with ancient scripture and stretching into returning series in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted paired with blueprinted year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. major banners plant stakes across the year using marquee IP, even as streamers flood the fall with new perspectives together with primordial unease. Meanwhile, the artisan tier is surfing the kinetic energy of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are precise, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige fear returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal Pictures sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The follow up digs further into canon, broadens the animatronic terror cast, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, 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. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No canon weight. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

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

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy IP: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, led 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 sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The 2026 genre Year Ahead: Sequels, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A hectic Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek The incoming horror calendar crams up front with a January pile-up, thereafter extends through the warm months, and straight through the holiday frame, blending brand heft, untold stories, and shrewd alternatives. Studios and streamers are relying on mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that shape horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

The genre has solidified as the sturdy swing in studio calendars, a corner that can grow when it connects and still hedge the floor when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for buyers that low-to-mid budget genre plays can lead pop culture, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and unexpected risers. The energy extended into 2025, where revivals and prestige plays signaled there is a lane for several lanes, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that travel well. The aggregate for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across studios, with planned clusters, a pairing of marquee IP and untested plays, and a revived commitment on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and OTT platforms.

Executives say the genre now works like a schedule utility on the calendar. Horror can bow on many corridors, yield a easy sell for marketing and platform-native cuts, and outpace with patrons that turn out on preview nights and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the entry connects. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that equation. The year launches with a thick January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a October build that stretches into spooky season and into November. The grid also spotlights the continuing integration of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just making another installment. They are looking to package ongoing narrative with a premium feel, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a reframed mood or a cast configuration that reconnects a new entry to a foundational era. At the very same time, the creative leads behind the top original plays are prioritizing physical effects work, on-set effects and grounded locations. That pairing hands the 2026 slate a solid mix of assurance and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount leads early with two prominent entries that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the core, signaling it as both a handoff and a classic-mode character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach conveys a fan-service aware strategy without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push centered on heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will seek mass reach through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick switches to whatever dominates the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is efficient, grief-rooted, and commercial: a grieving man brings home an AI companion that becomes a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit uncanny-valley stunts and micro spots that hybridizes intimacy and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a final title to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are presented as auteur events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date lets the studio to maximize 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has consistently shown that a gritty, prosthetic-heavy mix can feel elevated on a tight budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is selling as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror built on immersive craft and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre slate land on copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a cadence that enhances both week-one demand and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with worldwide entries and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in back-catalog play, using timely promos, holiday hubs, and curated strips to extend momentum on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix originals and festival buys, finalizing horror entries closer to launch and staging as events drops with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a one-two of precision releases and fast windowing that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter 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 evaluate horror on a selective basis. The platform has signaled readiness to board select projects with name filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchises versus originals

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is assuring enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the method. In 2023, a cinema-first model that honored streaming windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they pivot perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries 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 produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to link the films through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

Behind-the-camera trends

The director conversations behind the year’s horror hint at a continued shift toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that centers mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-referential reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which match well with convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that elevate razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is full. 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 brooding contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or have a peek at these guys family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

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 face a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: gothic-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 abrasive boss try to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic inverts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to menace, rooted in Cronin’s hands-on craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting piece that teases the unease of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: major-studio and name-above-title ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes modern genre fads and true-crime buzz. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a different family entangled with older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. 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 period-specific language and primal menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 horror needed slack in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, clearing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.