Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on global platforms

An terrifying spectral suspense film from scriptwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an timeless horror when unknowns become conduits in a dark game. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish chronicle of staying alive and old world terror that will redefine scare flicks this cool-weather season. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five characters who wake up stranded in a wilderness-bound cottage under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Prepare to be shaken by a big screen outing that fuses bone-deep fear with mystical narratives, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is redefined when the entities no longer form outside their bodies, but rather deep within. This depicts the shadowy aspect of the victims. The result is a bone-chilling mental war where the drama becomes a soul-crushing face-off between good and evil.


In a bleak outland, five young people find themselves marooned under the malevolent control and possession of a mysterious person. As the characters becomes incapacitated to break her manipulation, detached and targeted by entities mind-shattering, they are made to stand before their emotional phantoms while the timeline ruthlessly strikes toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and links shatter, coercing each person to evaluate their self and the notion of decision-making itself. The intensity intensify with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that fuses occult fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to tap into instinctual horror, an power older than civilization itself, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and dealing with a power that challenges autonomy when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra demanded embodying something darker than pain. She is insensitive until the invasion happens, and that transition is gut-wrenching because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be available for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring subscribers worldwide can dive into this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has seen over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to a global viewership.


Mark your calendar for this heart-stopping descent into darkness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these fearful discoveries about mankind.


For film updates, making-of footage, and news directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: 2025 in focus American release plan melds Mythic Possession, independent shockers, plus legacy-brand quakes

Across endurance-driven terror saturated with old testament echoes and stretching into series comebacks in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered in tandem with precision-timed year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors hold down the year with established lines, even as subscription platforms load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and old-world menace. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is carried on the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are surgical, which means 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. From director Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a sealed box body horror arc with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed 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 is a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy IP: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Dials to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The approaching scare season: follow-ups, universe starters, And A hectic Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek: The emerging genre season crowds up front with a January traffic jam, thereafter flows through the mid-year, and deep into the festive period, balancing legacy muscle, untold stories, and calculated calendar placement. Major distributors and platforms are doubling down on lean spends, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has turned into the predictable release in distribution calendars, a category that can surge when it resonates and still safeguard the losses when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year showed decision-makers that modestly budgeted fright engines can galvanize the discourse, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films underscored there is a lane for a spectrum, from franchise continuations to standalone ideas that play globally. The takeaway for 2026 is a slate that appears tightly organized across distributors, with obvious clusters, a mix of marquee IP and new pitches, and a tightened commitment on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium rental and SVOD.

Executives say the horror lane now functions as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can launch on numerous frames, supply a quick sell for creative and TikTok spots, and exceed norms with audiences that line up on first-look nights and return through the next pass if the movie lands. In the wake of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates comfort in that setup. The slate opens with a thick January block, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while holding room for a autumn push that flows toward the fright window and past Halloween. The program also highlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and OTT outlets that can stage a platform run, spark evangelism, and widen at the proper time.

A companion trend is franchise tending across shared universes and veteran brands. Major shops are not just releasing another chapter. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a typeface approach that signals a refreshed voice or a casting move that connects a upcoming film to a classic era. At the in tandem, the auteurs behind the most anticipated originals are prioritizing in-camera technique, special makeup and distinct locales. That pairing yields 2026 a robust balance of assurance and discovery, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two centerpiece bets that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a baton pass and a origin-leaning character-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a fan-service aware bent without recycling the last two entries’ sisters thread. Look for a marketing run rooted in brand visuals, character-first teases, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reboots 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after four-quadrant chatter through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick reframes to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined pushes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, tragic, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an digital partner that shifts into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to bring back uncanny-valley stunts and short reels that blurs love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are set up as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to saturate 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven strategy can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror charge that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio places two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can lift large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in careful craft and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a cadence that fortifies both FOMO and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video blends acquired titles with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the 2026 genre total. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has been willing to board select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Anticipate 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 precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the package is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not preclude a parallel release from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The More about the author film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster aesthetics and world-building, which work nicely for convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance 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 stiff, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans franchise. 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. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s machine mate unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie 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 confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 demanding boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting scenario that pipes the unease through a minor’s uneven POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. 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 re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that lampoons today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 breaks out, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household anchored to older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: moving forward. 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-specific language and raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 shifting, fall likely.

Why this year, why now

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where low-to-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 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. Expect a healthy 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundscape, 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 rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.