Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across major platforms

One haunting unearthly terror film from literary architect / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an primordial evil when guests become pawns in a cursed contest. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving portrayal of overcoming and age-old darkness that will revamp genre cinema this scare season. Visualized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and eerie thriller follows five figures who regain consciousness stranded in a far-off lodge under the aggressive grip of Kyra, a haunted figure dominated by a two-thousand-year-old religious nightmare. Prepare to be absorbed by a filmic venture that intertwines primitive horror with ancestral stories, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a recurring element in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is turned on its head when the malevolences no longer emerge externally, but rather from their psyche. This marks the grimmest part of each of them. The result is a harrowing cognitive warzone where the emotions becomes a relentless push-pull between right and wrong.


In a forsaken terrain, five young people find themselves caught under the possessive force and possession of a uncanny character. As the ensemble becomes incapable to resist her power, cut off and chased by forces impossible to understand, they are made to battle their inner demons while the timeline coldly ticks toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion escalates and teams implode, prompting each survivor to challenge their core and the philosophy of autonomy itself. The stakes amplify with every minute, delivering a terror ride that combines otherworldly panic with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to tap into raw dread, an threat rooted in antiquity, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and challenging a power that threatens selfhood when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that evolution is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering watchers everywhere can watch this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first preview, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, extending the thrill to lovers of terror across nations.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to explore these unholy truths about the soul.


For film updates, making-of footage, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit our spooky domain.





The horror genre’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate braids together archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, and Franchise Rumbles

Across life-or-death fear grounded in ancient scripture as well as series comebacks plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated together with carefully orchestrated year in a decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios are anchoring the year with known properties, at the same time streaming platforms prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as scriptural shivers. At the same time, the art-house flank is propelled by the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are exacting, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re boards, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The continuation widens the legend, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, pinning the winter close.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror duet fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated canon. No franchise baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult 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 Is 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 does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn density and winter pivot

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fear slate: installments, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek The current terror slate lines up from day one with a January bottleneck, and then runs through the warm months, and deep into the late-year period, weaving IP strength, new concepts, and well-timed counterprogramming. Studios and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that turn genre releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has become the most reliable tool in annual schedules, a vertical that can grow when it connects and still insulate the risk when it falls short. After 2023 demonstrated to executives that lean-budget pictures can steer social chatter, the following year carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing extended into 2025, where revived properties and filmmaker-prestige bets confirmed there is capacity for multiple flavors, from returning installments to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across companies, with intentional bunching, a mix of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a re-energized focus on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now acts as a wildcard on the distribution slate. The genre can premiere on almost any weekend, offer a clear pitch for spots and reels, and exceed norms with patrons that come out on opening previews and stick through the follow-up frame if the picture lands. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern demonstrates faith in that approach. The slate commences with a stacked January run, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a autumn push that carries into the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The calendar also highlights the ongoing integration of indie distributors and SVOD players that can develop over weeks, spark evangelism, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is series management across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. Major shops are not just producing another entry. They are shaping as ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that telegraphs a new tone or a cast configuration that ties a new installment to a early run. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are doubling down on material texture, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That interplay delivers 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and newness, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline entries that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, positioning the film as both a succession moment and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the tonal posture points to a legacy-leaning campaign without going over the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by signature symbols, intro reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that escalates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and quick hits that melds romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a name unveil to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are sold as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a in-your-face, practical-effects forward style can feel big on a moderate cost. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror hit that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is selling as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both players and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by historical precision and textual fidelity, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with global acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using timely promos, horror hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival grabs, slotting horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is straightforward: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a standard theatrical run for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the team and cast is steady enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they pivot perspective and stretch the story. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind these films signal a continued bias toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers tone and tension rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a tone piece that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which play well in booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. 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 spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a early fall window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

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 encounter a shimmering reality and the town’s navigate here horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 demanding boss claw to survive on a lonely island as the hierarchy inverts and paranoia spreads. 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 vision that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s tactile craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 home-set haunting piece that channels the fear through a minor’s uncertain point of view. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed and star-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that skewers today’s horror trends and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 detonates, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a young family caught in long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving forward. 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: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-slotted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. 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 spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 pace and range. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a get redirected here cold, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, aural design, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is click to read more Well Positioned

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.