Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, landing October 2025 on global platforms

One eerie metaphysical thriller from dramatist / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an timeless dread when newcomers become tokens in a diabolical experiment. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of struggle and mythic evil that will reshape terror storytelling this season. Realized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five lost souls who wake up stranded in a remote dwelling under the oppressive command of Kyra, a central character possessed by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a immersive ride that combines intense horror with ancestral stories, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a classic tradition in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is turned on its head when the spirits no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This marks the most primal facet of the group. The result is a enthralling moral showdown where the drama becomes a constant battle between heaven and hell.


In a bleak outland, five friends find themselves contained under the sinister grip and control of a enigmatic person. As the protagonists becomes paralyzed to oppose her power, exiled and targeted by creatures mind-shattering, they are driven to wrestle with their greatest panics while the timeline coldly ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust grows and bonds dissolve, pushing each member to reflect on their values and the nature of conscious will itself. The pressure surge with every fleeting time, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes otherworldly panic with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke instinctual horror, an threat that predates humanity, embedding itself in soul-level flaws, and dealing with a power that forces self-examination when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was about accessing something outside normal anguish. She is clueless until the control shifts, and that transformation is emotionally raw because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring horror lovers across the world can engage with this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original promo, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering path of possession. Face *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For director insights, director cuts, and press updates straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s sea change: 2025 U.S. calendar braids together archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, alongside IP aftershocks

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror grounded in legendary theology and extending to returning series as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be horror’s most layered paired with deliberate year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors lay down anchors using marquee IP, in tandem SVOD players saturate the fall with discovery plays plus archetypal fear. In parallel, the independent cohort is buoyed by the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s slate starts the year with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. set for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. From director Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, the Warner lot releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma driven plotting, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The continuation widens the legend, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror duet anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Next comes Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

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. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. 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, under Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror returns
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The forthcoming 2026 scare year to come: follow-ups, universe starters, as well as A stacked Calendar optimized for shocks

Dek The incoming scare calendar loads right away with a January cluster, before it stretches through summer, and continuing into the festive period, blending IP strength, new concepts, and well-timed alternatives. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and short-form initiatives that transform genre releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the most reliable lever in distribution calendars, a pillar that can accelerate when it lands and still buffer the liability when it misses. After 2023 signaled to greenlighters that cost-conscious shockers can steer mainstream conversation, the following year maintained heat with filmmaker-forward plays and word-of-mouth wins. The energy moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers made clear there is an opening for many shades, from brand follow-ups to one-and-done originals that play globally. The net effect for 2026 is a run that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with mapped-out bands, a blend of brand names and novel angles, and a recommitted eye on release windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Planners observe the category now works like a fill-in ace on the calendar. The genre can roll out on most weekends, offer a clear pitch for teasers and reels, and overperform with patrons that arrive on advance nights and sustain through the next weekend if the film fires. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 mapping underscores trust in that approach. The year opens with a crowded January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while saving space for a autumn stretch that pushes into the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The layout also underscores the continuing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and move wide at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and storied titles. Big banners are not just pushing another next film. They are moving to present lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that telegraphs a new vibe or a ensemble decision that binds a incoming chapter to a early run. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the most buzzed-about originals are leaning into material texture, real effects and concrete locations. That combination produces 2026 a strong blend of trust and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance announces a roots-evoking angle without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave built on recognizable motifs, character previews, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen 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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue mass reach through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick reframes to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated lanes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that shifts into a lethal partner. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back strange in-person beats and short-cut promos that blurs companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an earned moment closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele titles are sold as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second beat that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has shown that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led treatment can feel deluxe on a mid-range budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror shot that embraces worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is selling as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror built on immersive craft and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both premiere heat and platform bumps in the tail. Prime Video balances licensed titles with worldwide entries and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog engagement, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and staff picks to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps options open about in-house releases and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries near their drops and coalescing around go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a hybrid of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception encourages. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The practical approach is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is comforting enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

The last three-year set announce the method. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept clean windows did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a revived cycle of weblink a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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 shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre point to a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that underscores atmosphere and fear rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which work nicely for con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that center surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. 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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can win 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 run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the chain of command inverts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that pipes the unease through a child’s wavering personal vantage. Rating: TBA. Production: completed. 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 rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that teases in-vogue horror tropes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: pending. Production: active. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three grounded forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 wintry, 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 stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, 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 visual texture, soundcraft, and visuals 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is franchise muscle where it helps, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.