Mythic Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding thriller, arriving October 2025 on major streaming services

An spine-tingling spiritual fright fest from creator / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an ancient horror when guests become proxies in a satanic ritual. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of resistance and old world terror that will redefine horror this October. Guided by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic fearfest follows five young adults who suddenly rise sealed in a off-grid dwelling under the menacing sway of Kyra, a tormented girl haunted by a prehistoric biblical demon. Prepare to be drawn in by a screen-based journey that fuses instinctive fear with mystical narratives, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a legendary trope in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is flipped when the dark entities no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather internally. This portrays the darkest version of the players. The result is a riveting mind game where the narrative becomes a intense confrontation between moral forces.


In a bleak terrain, five adults find themselves contained under the unholy sway and domination of a unidentified female figure. As the victims becomes unresisting to oppose her grasp, disconnected and tracked by beings beyond comprehension, they are required to battle their raw vulnerabilities while the doomsday meter unforgivingly edges forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease deepens and teams erode, demanding each person to reconsider their self and the concept of autonomy itself. The tension climb with every instant, delivering a chilling narrative that weaves together paranormal dread with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to awaken basic terror, an threat born of forgotten ages, manipulating inner turmoil, and exposing a entity that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra required summoning something deeper than fear. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that change is eerie because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring users no matter where they are can survive this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has collected over six-figure audience.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Do not miss this cinematic descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this launch day to see these unholy truths about free will.


For behind-the-scenes access, on-set glimpses, and news from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: the 2025 season U.S. release slate integrates primeval-possession lore, independent shockers, stacked beside IP aftershocks

From endurance-driven terror rooted in scriptural legend and onward to IP renewals as well as focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most variegated plus deliberate year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors hold down the year with established lines, in tandem subscription platforms crowd the fall with new voices and primordial unease. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is carried on the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal starts the year with an audacious swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

Toward summer’s end, the WB camp unveils the final movement of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles 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 Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Signals and Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The approaching genre Year Ahead: returning titles, universe starters, and also A Crowded Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek: The brand-new horror calendar packs in short order with a January crush, before it spreads through June and July, and running into the holiday frame, mixing IP strength, novel approaches, and calculated release strategy. The major players are committing to cost discipline, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-fueled campaigns that shape these pictures into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This space has proven to be the dependable option in annual schedules, a space that can accelerate when it breaks through and still buffer the downside when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that modestly budgeted genre plays can shape mainstream conversation, 2024 continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The carry fed into 2025, where revivals and festival-grade titles underscored there is an opening for a variety of tones, from returning installments to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The end result for the 2026 slate is a slate that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a balance of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a renewed emphasis on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and platforms.

Schedulers say the horror lane now serves as a swing piece on the slate. Horror can launch on virtually any date, supply a easy sell for ad units and TikTok spots, and overperform with demo groups that show up on early shows and sustain through the follow-up frame if the film pays off. Exiting a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan indicates belief in that equation. The slate launches with a loaded January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a fall corridor that extends to the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The arrangement also illustrates the continuing integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and widen at the right moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. Major shops are not just greenlighting another continuation. They are working to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a fresh attitude or a talent selection that links a latest entry to a initial period. At the meanwhile, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are favoring tactile craft, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence gives 2026 a robust balance of home base and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach hints at a classic-referencing angle without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. A campaign is expected leaning on recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that escalates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-form creative that hybridizes companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are framed as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel prestige on a tight budget. Position this as a hard-R summer horror hit that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around narrative world, and creature builds, elements that can stoke premium screens and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a sequence that expands both FOMO and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video pairs licensed content with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival buys, securing horror entries toward the drop and elevating as drops rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with prestige directors or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 arc with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. 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 announced a standard theatrical run for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The operating solution is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a parallel release from delivering when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently 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 double feature plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, enables marketing to relate entries through character web and themes and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries hint at a continued bias toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and artisan spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 quiet contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Winter into spring tee up summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

End of summer through fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s artificial companion becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss scramble to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to my company horror, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that refracts terror through a young child’s uncertain internal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A parody reboot that riffs on current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family caught in ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use 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 sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where low-to-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 work 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 will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and cinematography 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 Shapes Up Strong

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.