Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

This haunting spectral suspense story from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primeval nightmare when strangers become instruments in a hellish ceremony. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing portrayal of resilience and age-old darkness that will revolutionize genre cinema this autumn. Visualized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and atmospheric film follows five figures who awaken stuck in a isolated shack under the menacing sway of Kyra, a young woman possessed by a antiquated religious nightmare. Be warned to be seized by a audio-visual outing that combines instinctive fear with timeless legends, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a time-honored pillar in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the beings no longer originate outside their bodies, but rather from deep inside. This suggests the most hidden aspect of the cast. The result is a gripping mind game where the conflict becomes a unyielding confrontation between virtue and vice.


In a unforgiving wilderness, five adults find themselves contained under the ominous rule and control of a shadowy person. As the survivors becomes incapacitated to fight her will, disconnected and followed by terrors beyond comprehension, they are compelled to battle their core terrors while the time ruthlessly moves toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety amplifies and partnerships splinter, forcing each protagonist to scrutinize their existence and the principle of personal agency itself. The tension amplify with every fleeting time, delivering a horror experience that weaves together otherworldly panic with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to draw upon core terror, an force before modern man, feeding on emotional vulnerability, and exposing a power that redefines identity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that transformation is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing streamers from coast to coast can engage with this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original clip, which has received over 100K plays.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, exporting the fear to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling journey into fear. Experience *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to acknowledge these spiritual awakenings about the human condition.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and press updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 cycle American release plan integrates archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, paired with returning-series thunder

Kicking off with life-or-death fear infused with primordial scripture and including brand-name continuations and incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated plus tactically planned year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors hold down the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously SVOD players saturate the fall with new voices alongside scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is carried on the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are precise, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium genre swings back

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in an immediate now. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: period tinged dread, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror chamber piece with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. From writer director 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

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 is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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 premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Dials to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

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 aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 scare Year Ahead: returning titles, original films, alongside A Crowded Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The upcoming scare slate packs in short order with a January bottleneck, before it stretches through peak season, and running into the holiday frame, mixing brand equity, creative pitches, and shrewd calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are betting on smart costs, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that pivot these releases into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

This space has emerged as the consistent tool in release plans, a category that can surge when it clicks and still buffer the risk when it does not. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that cost-conscious genre plays can steer pop culture, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and surprise hits. The upswing carried into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films made clear there is room for several lanes, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the industry, with planned clusters, a spread of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a recommitted emphasis on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the rollout map. Horror can open on open real estate, furnish a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with audiences that lean in on advance nights and maintain momentum through the next pass if the movie hits. Emerging from a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout exhibits confidence in that approach. The calendar launches with a heavy January block, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the fright window and into November. The calendar also shows the ongoing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can build gradually, create conversation, and scale up at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just pushing another installment. They are trying to present lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting move that anchors a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing practical craft, on-set effects and specific settings. That pairing offers 2026 a confident blend of comfort and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile plays that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a memory-charged treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first 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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will foreground. As a summer alternative, this one will seek general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, melancholic, and commercial: a grieving man installs an machine companion that shifts into a harmful mate. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to reprise strange in-person beats and brief clips that blurs affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an PR pop closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are marketed as director events, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to fill 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects style can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror shock that leans hard into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a proven supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is billing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both fans and novices. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign creative around canon, and creature builds, elements that can lift premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in obsessive craft and period language, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a sequence that fortifies both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the tail. Prime Video interleaves acquired titles with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and curated rows to keep attention on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival pickups, securing horror entries with shorter lead times and eventizing releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of precision theatrical plays and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 arc with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clear: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. Be ready for 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 partners, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is elevating character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-tinted vision from a hot helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the configuration is known enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comps from the last three years make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not hamper a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they pivot perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to link the films through character arcs and themes and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind the 2026 slate signal a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead press and technical spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster realization and design, which align with booth activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the palette of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to 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 loss-struck man’s machine mate mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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: Shot sequentially 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 run into a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 fight to survive on a cut-off island as the pecking order turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that toys with the unease of a child’s fragile point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and star-fronted paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: Source principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a young family bound to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026, why now

Three execution-level forces define this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strict 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 dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on meme-ready beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 underdog chase 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate 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 credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundcraft, and imagery 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, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is franchise muscle where it helps, original vision where it matters, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.