Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient terror, a chilling chiller, debuting Oct 2025 on global platforms

One frightening otherworldly fright fest from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient horror when passersby become puppets in a supernatural ceremony. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of struggle and timeless dread that will revamp fear-driven cinema this fall. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody fearfest follows five unknowns who snap to imprisoned in a wooded house under the malignant dominion of Kyra, a young woman overtaken by a 2,000-year-old biblical force. Prepare to be seized by a cinematic outing that unites soul-chilling terror with folklore, coming 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 historical fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is subverted when the spirits no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather from their core. This marks the most hidden part of every character. The result is a harrowing mental war where the drama becomes a constant clash between innocence and sin.


In a forsaken wild, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the sinister force and haunting of a obscure character. As the ensemble becomes submissive to withstand her curse, marooned and targeted by terrors unfathomable, they are confronted to wrestle with their inner demons while the hours brutally strikes toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust builds and teams crack, compelling each survivor to doubt their character and the structure of liberty itself. The hazard intensify with every passing moment, delivering a horror experience that intertwines demonic fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to explore basic terror, an evil rooted in antiquity, filtering through emotional vulnerability, and challenging a entity that challenges autonomy when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant evoking something far beyond human desperation. She is insensitive until the entity awakens, and that change is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving households no matter where they are can enjoy this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original promo, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this mind-warping ride through nightmares. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to uncover these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For teasers, director cuts, and news from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie portal.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 season American release plan weaves archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from last-stand terror steeped in legendary theology and stretching into installment follow-ups and surgical indie voices, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered along with tactically planned year of the last decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. the big studios are anchoring the year with known properties, even as subscription platforms crowd the fall with fresh voices together with mythic dread. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is fueled by the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, notably this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp opens the year with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in 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 reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching chiller season: continuations, Originals, alongside A jammed Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek The arriving terror year crams immediately with a January cluster, thereafter spreads through midyear, and running into the holidays, combining name recognition, new concepts, and tactical counterweight. Studio marketers and platforms are betting on efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that pivot these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the consistent swing in studio slates, a vertical that can accelerate when it connects and still mitigate the exposure when it does not. After 2023 reminded top brass that cost-conscious scare machines can shape the zeitgeist, the following year kept energy high with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is appetite for different modes, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a mix of known properties and new concepts, and a refocused priority on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium rental and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the space now performs as a fill-in ace on the programming map. The genre can launch on virtually any date, offer a simple premise for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with moviegoers that turn out on preview nights and maintain momentum through the week two if the movie pays off. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern telegraphs comfort in that model. The calendar begins with a weighty January block, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that runs into spooky season and past the holiday. The gridline also highlights the expanded integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and expand at the right moment.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across interlocking continuities and classic IP. Studios are not just rolling another sequel. They are moving to present story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that signals a refreshed voice or a casting move that bridges a latest entry to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the top original plays are championing tactile craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a smart balance of comfort and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a fan-service aware framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is efficient, melancholic, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-form creative that interweaves longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial promo. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His projects are framed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot creates space for Universal to fill 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, in-camera leaning mix can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror shock that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror defined by obsessive craft and language, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video interleaves library titles with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival pickups, 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, exploits a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is simple: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, 2026 skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps frame the method. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and elevate scope. 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 produced back-to-back, enables marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror suggest a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which favor con floor moments and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

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 stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s AI companion shifts into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker Source with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that leverages the fright of a child’s tricky perceptions. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-scale and toplined occult chiller.

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 needles modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. 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 erupts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family entangled with past horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundscape, and image-making 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.