Age-old Horror Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on premium platforms

One terrifying occult nightmare movie from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an forgotten evil when foreigners become subjects in a demonic conflict. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of overcoming and old world terror that will alter horror this harvest season. Realized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic thriller follows five strangers who snap to confined in a isolated structure under the malevolent will of Kyra, a female presence possessed by a prehistoric biblical force. Arm yourself to be drawn in by a cinematic presentation that fuses primitive horror with timeless legends, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a legendary pillar in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is twisted when the spirits no longer form from beyond, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the darkest dimension of these individuals. The result is a edge-of-seat spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a relentless struggle between virtue and vice.


In a remote wild, five campers find themselves caught under the possessive influence and haunting of a unidentified female figure. As the companions becomes defenseless to resist her control, exiled and followed by creatures beyond comprehension, they are cornered to battle their core terrors while the countdown coldly counts down toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and associations collapse, coercing each survivor to rethink their true nature and the foundation of volition itself. The stakes grow with every minute, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends otherworldly suspense with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to tap into instinctual horror, an threat rooted in antiquity, channeling itself through emotional vulnerability, and navigating a darkness that tests the soul when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the invasion happens, and that transformation is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving users in all regions can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its release of trailer #1, which has received over 100K plays.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, presenting the nightmare to lovers of terror across nations.


Avoid skipping this visceral ride through nightmares. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to face these ghostly lessons about free will.


For director insights, set experiences, and press updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit the official movie site.





American horror’s watershed moment: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar weaves Mythic Possession, microbudget gut-punches, plus legacy-brand quakes

Moving from grit-forward survival fare suffused with scriptural legend to brand-name continuations together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered plus intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors plant stakes across the year by way of signature titles, in parallel premium streamers front-load the fall with new perspectives paired with ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, independent banners is propelled by the momentum of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

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

The majors are assertive. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal camp opens the year with a statement play: a refreshed Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer winds down, the WB camp bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

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 From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

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

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

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

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror reemerges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forecast: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next spook release year: follow-ups, filmmaker-first projects, in tandem with A loaded Calendar optimized for chills

Dek: The brand-new scare calendar crowds from day one with a January cluster, then stretches through the warm months, and straight through the holiday frame, blending brand equity, new concepts, and data-minded calendar placement. Distributors with platforms are focusing on lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate horror entries into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror filmmaking has turned into the dependable move in programming grids, a corner that can spike when it breaks through and still cushion the liability when it falls short. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for studio brass that cost-conscious scare machines can lead the national conversation, 2024 maintained heat with visionary-driven titles and quiet over-performers. The head of steam fed into 2025, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is room for many shades, from legacy continuations to fresh IP that travel well. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a slate that looks unusually coordinated across the field, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of legacy names and new packages, and a tightened focus on cinema windows that feed downstream value on premium home window and streaming.

Buyers contend the category now serves as a versatile piece on the schedule. The genre can kick off on most weekends, supply a simple premise for marketing and TikTok spots, and over-index with viewers that turn out on Thursday previews and continue through the next pass if the title hits. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 plan signals trust in that setup. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while saving space for a fall run that pushes into holiday-adjacent weekends and beyond. The program also spotlights the greater integration of indie arms and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, create conversation, and move wide at the timely point.

A notable top-line trend is IP cultivation across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The companies are not just mounting another follow-up. They are aiming to frame story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a art treatment that broadcasts a reframed mood or a casting move that links a next film to a original cycle. At the very same time, the directors behind the marquee originals are returning to material texture, special makeup and grounded locations. That interplay yields 2026 a robust balance of known notes and invention, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, angling it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach hints at a fan-service aware angle without retreading the last two entries’ family thread. A campaign is expected driven by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off 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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that mixes devotion and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele projects are marketed as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects execution can feel big on a moderate cost. Look for a red-band summer horror charge that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is marketing as a new take 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 players and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build assets around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can amplify premium screens and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by careful craft and historical speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that expands both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the tail. Prime Video stitches together library titles with global pickups and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using timely promos, holiday hubs, and editorial rows to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix keeps optionality about original films and festival grabs, locking in horror entries near their drops and making event-like releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a staged of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 track with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception prompts. 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 hand in hand, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering 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 oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is comforting enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent comps outline the method. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a parallel release from winning when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium screens. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they angle differently and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through cast and motif and to continue assets in field without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a tone piece that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which favor booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is heavy. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month finishes 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 real, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a transitional slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited plot reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner unfolds into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed 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 imp source campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the control dynamic flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s practical effects and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 residential haunting setup that threads the dread through a minor’s volatile internal vantage. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural 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 targets current genre trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family linked to past horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three hands-on forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a weblink two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.