Age-old Terror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling thriller, landing October 2025 across major streaming services

An terrifying otherworldly shockfest from literary architect / director Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic nightmare when unfamiliar people become subjects in a hellish maze. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking saga of overcoming and archaic horror that will redefine genre cinema this Halloween season. Realized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and gothic suspense flick follows five unknowns who emerge ensnared in a unreachable house under the ominous influence of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a prehistoric biblical demon. Steel yourself to be gripped by a cinematic display that melds raw fear with folklore, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a enduring theme in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reversed when the beings no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather deep within. This mirrors the shadowy part of the victims. The result is a intense identity crisis where the suspense becomes a unforgiving clash between good and evil.


In a barren terrain, five individuals find themselves trapped under the sinister effect and spiritual invasion of a mysterious woman. As the protagonists becomes incapable to oppose her command, disconnected and chased by terrors indescribable, they are made to face their emotional phantoms while the clock unforgivingly ticks toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear surges and links implode, forcing each member to examine their identity and the principle of self-determination itself. The hazard amplify with every breath, delivering a chilling narrative that fuses demonic fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to uncover primitive panic, an spirit born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through human fragility, and highlighting a presence that tests the soul when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that transition is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring viewers internationally can be part of this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has been viewed over strong viewer count.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, presenting the nightmare to global fright lovers.


Witness this haunted spiral into evil. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to uncover these fearful discoveries about free will.


For teasers, production news, and insider scoops from inside the story, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across media channels and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror Turning Point: 2025 in focus American release plan blends legend-infused possession, indie terrors, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Spanning endurance-driven terror infused with primordial scripture and including legacy revivals set beside keen independent perspectives, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified and intentionally scheduled year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors lay down anchors through proven series, while SVOD players pack the fall with unboxed visions alongside archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is riding the kinetic energy of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. timed for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It opens in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. 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.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, 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 sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 chiller release year: follow-ups, Originals, as well as A stacked Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The emerging terror year crowds right away with a January glut, before it flows through the warm months, and well into the winter holidays, fusing name recognition, untold stories, and smart counterplay. Studios and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that elevate these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the predictable release in release plans, a pillar that can surge when it performs and still cushion the floor when it misses. After 2023 signaled to top brass that mid-range horror vehicles can lead the national conversation, the following year kept energy high with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The carry carried into the 2025 frame, where revivals and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is appetite for a variety of tones, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that travel well. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a schedule that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of brand names and new packages, and a renewed emphasis on box-office windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and streaming.

Marketers add the genre now slots in as a swing piece on the release plan. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, furnish a grabby hook for creative and shorts, and exceed norms with moviegoers that appear on previews Thursday and return through the sophomore frame if the release delivers. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration shows faith in that setup. The year launches with a front-loaded January run, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a autumn push that reaches into late October and into post-Halloween. The gridline also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and platforms that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and move wide at the precise moment.

A companion trend is brand curation across linked properties and long-running brands. The companies are not just making another next film. They are looking to package lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that conveys a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that bridges a new entry to a first wave. At the same time, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are favoring tactile craft, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a throwback-friendly strategy without going over the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign fueled by franchise iconography, early character teases, and a rollout cadence arriving in 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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that fuses companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His projects are presented as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, practical-effects forward strategy can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror jolt that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around world-building, and creature work, elements that can stoke premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by historical precision and dialect, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s horror titles window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a structure that elevates both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video blends licensed films with international acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using editorial spots, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival buys, securing horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a tiered of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with award winners or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. Plan on 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 hand in hand, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate household recognition. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the configuration is comforting enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years announce the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that respected streaming windows did not prevent a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift POV and expand the canvas. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind this year’s genre point to a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. imp source The push will likely that leans on unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to fan-con activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that work in PLF.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s AI companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 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 work to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy shifts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that threads the dread through a minor’s flickering subjective lens. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly 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 genre lampoon that lampoons modern genre fads and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan caught in old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist Get More Info horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

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

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 momentum and variety. 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 turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, 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 prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.