Antediluvian Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding horror thriller, bowing October 2025 across global platforms

A spine-tingling metaphysical shockfest from writer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an age-old force when passersby become proxies in a devilish game. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing episode of endurance and mythic evil that will revamp terror storytelling this fall. Brought to life by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and moody thriller follows five lost souls who emerge sealed in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the menacing rule of Kyra, a haunted figure possessed by a prehistoric holy text monster. Get ready to be gripped by a visual spectacle that intertwines intense horror with mythic lore, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a legendary pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is flipped when the presences no longer come externally, but rather inside their minds. This illustrates the malevolent side of these individuals. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the tension becomes a merciless tug-of-war between righteousness and malevolence.


In a haunting wilderness, five souls find themselves sealed under the sinister rule and possession of a shadowy figure. As the survivors becomes submissive to oppose her influence, exiled and pursued by evils mind-shattering, they are made to stand before their inner demons while the hours relentlessly draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread amplifies and friendships collapse, requiring each member to challenge their values and the concept of personal agency itself. The consequences mount with every beat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that harmonizes otherworldly panic with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dive into primitive panic, an power beyond time, operating within human fragility, and exposing a being that dismantles free will when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra demanded embodying something rooted in terror. She is innocent until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing customers internationally can engage with this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has earned over strong viewer count.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Witness this bone-rattling journey into fear. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to uncover these evil-rooted truths about mankind.


For film updates, extra content, and promotions from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across social media and visit the official digital haunt.





Today’s horror decisive shift: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup melds legend-infused possession, signature indie scares, plus returning-series thunder

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror infused with ancient scripture and extending to series comebacks set beside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is tracking to be the most complex plus calculated campaign year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners hold down the year with known properties, as SVOD players flood the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is carried on the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. 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. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma driven plotting, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The return delves further into myth, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror returns
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. 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. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next fear release year: installments, universe starters, in tandem with A Crowded Calendar designed for chills

Dek The emerging scare slate packs in short order with a January bottleneck, before it runs through midyear, and pushing into the holiday stretch, weaving name recognition, untold stories, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are committing to smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that position genre releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has established itself as the surest option in distribution calendars, a category that can surge when it catches and still hedge the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that low-to-mid budget pictures can command cultural conversation, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The upswing carried into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is demand for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to original features that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that seems notably aligned across the industry, with strategic blocks, a combination of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a tightened strategy on cinema windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium rental and OTT platforms.

Executives say the genre now acts as a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can premiere on almost any weekend, offer a tight logline for teasers and platform-native cuts, and outpace with ticket buyers that appear on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the offering satisfies. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration telegraphs conviction in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a weighty January block, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a late-year stretch that pushes into late October and into November. The map also illustrates the greater integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can launch in limited release, stoke social talk, and widen at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across interlocking continuities and legacy franchises. The companies are not just producing another entry. They are shaping as continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that announces a fresh attitude or a lead change that anchors a next entry to a first wave. At the in tandem, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two headline bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a passing of the torch and a DNA-forward character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a throwback-friendly angle without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push centered on iconic art, early character teases, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase mass reach through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man installs an machine companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on odd public stunts and short-cut promos that hybridizes companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are presented as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has consistently shown that a raw, in-camera leaning mix can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror hit that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal titles transition to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that elevates both debut momentum and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using featured rows, holiday hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival grabs, confirming horror entries near their drops and staging as events launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is putting together 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 offer is no-nonsense: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-first horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By weight, the 2026 slate bends toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on household recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a continental coloration from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not deter a same-day experiment from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind this year’s genre suggest a continued tilt toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar cadence

January is full. 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 moody palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the spread of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for this contact form each if word of mouth spreads.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s machine mate escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a altering 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 tough boss push to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting premise that filters its scares through a minor’s shifting subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. 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 spoof revival that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled 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 breaks out, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family entangled with ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and ancient menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026, why now

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-slotted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 releases. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where value-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 quiet 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. 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.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, audio design, 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.

A Promising 2026

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.