Age-old Terror Stirs within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, landing October 2025 across major streaming services

An terrifying mystic thriller from screenwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an prehistoric force when unrelated individuals become puppets in a satanic maze. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking depiction of survival and primordial malevolence that will redefine horror this October. Produced by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy story follows five strangers who wake up trapped in a unreachable structure under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a female presence haunted by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be immersed by a cinematic presentation that blends bone-deep fear with folklore, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a iconic tradition in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is turned on its head when the fiends no longer appear from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This portrays the darkest side of all involved. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the plotline becomes a unyielding fight between good and evil.


In a isolated no-man's-land, five adults find themselves sealed under the unholy aura and domination of a obscure character. As the protagonists becomes incapable to oppose her command, isolated and followed by spirits unimaginable, they are pushed to confront their greatest panics while the seconds unceasingly winds toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear mounts and links disintegrate, compelling each character to contemplate their character and the notion of decision-making itself. The tension grow with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that integrates demonic fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to extract basic terror, an entity older than civilization itself, manifesting in inner turmoil, and confronting a will that erodes the self when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is insensitive until the takeover begins, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring fans in all regions can engage with this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first trailer, which has been viewed over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, delivering the story to lovers of terror across nations.


Be sure to catch this cinematic fall into madness. Join *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to face these dark realities about the human condition.


For director insights, behind-the-scenes content, and announcements from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s tipping point: 2025 U.S. calendar melds biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, and series shake-ups

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror suffused with mythic scripture and including franchise returns and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the most complex combined with precision-timed year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, at the same time streaming platforms saturate the fall with discovery plays and old-world menace. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is surfing the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are methodical, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The top end is active. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal sets the tone with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

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

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming scare lineup: continuations, original films, together with A stacked Calendar designed for shocks

Dek: The new horror calendar crowds right away with a January crush, thereafter flows through June and July, and carrying into the winter holidays, balancing IP strength, novel approaches, and tactical counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are relying on cost discipline, theater-first strategies, and viral-minded pushes that pivot these films into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has emerged as the steady swing in studio slates, a segment that can grow when it breaks through and still insulate the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that disciplined-budget pictures can galvanize mainstream conversation, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The trend rolled into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects confirmed there is an opening for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The result for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the market, with planned clusters, a spread of brand names and fresh ideas, and a revived focus on theatrical windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and platforms.

Insiders argue the genre now serves as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, supply a clear pitch for previews and TikTok spots, and lead with fans that respond on Thursday nights and keep coming through the second weekend if the feature pays off. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 plan telegraphs assurance in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a heavy January stretch, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a October build that runs into the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The calendar also highlights the continuing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is series management across shared universes and long-running brands. The players are not just rolling another continuation. They are aiming to frame lineage with a marquee sheen, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a new vibe or a talent selection that binds a incoming chapter to a initial period. At the concurrently, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring physical effects work, physical gags and location-forward worlds. That combination provides 2026 a smart balance of home base and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight plays that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach indicates a fan-service aware approach without recycling the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign leaning on iconic art, initial cast looks, and a staggered trailer plan slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects 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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will seek broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct strategies. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and micro spots that hybridizes love and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a gritty, makeup-driven execution can feel premium on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is presenting as a reimagined restart 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 well-defined brief to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can increase premium screens and convention buzz.

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 Eggers’ run of period horror defined by minute detail and historical speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

Digital platform strategies

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that expands both premiere heat and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video balances library titles with cross-border buys and small theatrical windows when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and collection rows to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival grabs, confirming horror entries tight to release and coalescing around releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional cinema play for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using boutique theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is assuring enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps help explain the method. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they rotate perspective and increase ambition. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind these films forecast a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. 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 foggy reset amid larger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s digital partner evolves into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: aura-driven 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 hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic flips and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting chiller that plays with the chill of a child’s shaky perceptions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody return that pokes at hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a different family bound to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-core horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker event, click to read more teaser-driven.

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 historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital 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 placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, right-sized allotments, 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 texture, soundscape, and cinematography 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 Is Well Positioned

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.