Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites primeval horror, a pulse pounding shocker, streaming October 2025 across major platforms

This haunting unearthly terror film from dramatist / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an archaic fear when unrelated individuals become puppets in a cursed trial. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking depiction of living through and timeless dread that will revamp the fear genre this October. Created by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and atmospheric fearfest follows five people who suddenly rise stuck in a remote wooden structure under the oppressive rule of Kyra, a tormented girl dominated by a ancient biblical demon. Steel yourself to be shaken by a audio-visual journey that integrates visceral dread with mystical narratives, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring element in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the entities no longer arise from beyond, but rather from within. This echoes the most primal part of the cast. The result is a harrowing identity crisis where the story becomes a constant confrontation between light and darkness.


In a unforgiving backcountry, five individuals find themselves marooned under the possessive presence and infestation of a haunted apparition. As the ensemble becomes paralyzed to break her control, left alone and attacked by powers impossible to understand, they are confronted to deal with their emotional phantoms while the hours brutally winds toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease builds and bonds break, pushing each protagonist to reconsider their personhood and the idea of self-determination itself. The danger surge with every fleeting time, delivering a terror ride that integrates mystical fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to tap into pure dread, an evil that predates humanity, operating within mental cracks, and wrestling with a being that peels away humanity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra asked for exploring something past sanity. She is clueless until the possession kicks in, and that metamorphosis is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing horror lovers globally can witness this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has been viewed over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to scare fans abroad.


Witness this gripping ride through nightmares. Face *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to explore these evil-rooted truths about mankind.


For bonus footage, filmmaker commentary, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YACMovie across your socials and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets stateside slate melds biblical-possession ideas, microbudget gut-punches, and franchise surges

Spanning life-or-death fear saturated with biblical myth through to series comebacks paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is shaping up as the most dimensioned and calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses stabilize the year using marquee IP, concurrently subscription platforms flood the fall with new voices together with old-world menace. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is drafting behind the echoes from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

By late summer, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, 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, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a close quarters body horror study led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, 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 thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: 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 release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Dials to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

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 success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The coming 2026 genre lineup: follow-ups, filmmaker-first projects, alongside A Crowded Calendar optimized for chills

Dek: The emerging genre cycle loads from the jump with a January traffic jam, following that spreads through peak season, and straight through the holiday frame, combining IP strength, fresh ideas, and well-timed counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are betting on smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that shape these offerings into cross-demo moments.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The field has solidified as the predictable swing in release plans, a genre that can accelerate when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded buyers that modestly budgeted entries can steer mainstream conversation, the following year carried the beat with buzzy auteur projects and stealth successes. The carry moved into 2025, where resurrections and arthouse crossovers demonstrated there is appetite for several lanes, from continued chapters to original one-offs that perform internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with defined corridors, a spread of recognizable IP and untested plays, and a renewed priority on exhibition windows that increase tail monetization on premium rental and home streaming.

Buyers contend the space now functions as a flex slot on the programming map. The genre can roll out on nearly any frame, deliver a sharp concept for previews and social clips, and exceed norms with fans that respond on preview nights and continue through the subsequent weekend if the entry satisfies. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration demonstrates confidence in that dynamic. The slate gets underway with a crowded January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for counterweight, while reserving space for a fall run that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The arrangement also spotlights the tightening integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and broaden at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and legacy franchises. Studios are not just making another follow-up. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a logo package that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that connects a next film to a original cycle. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are embracing real-world builds, practical gags and vivid settings. That convergence affords the 2026 slate a vital pairing of assurance and invention, which is how the films export.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two spotlight plays that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, steering it as both a handoff and a origin-leaning character study. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach suggests a throwback-friendly treatment without looping the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Expect a marketing push stacked with recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a trailer cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will seek wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick redirects to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, somber, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an intelligent companion that mutates into a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to replay off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that blurs companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are marketed as event films, with a minimalist tease and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a gritty, prosthetic-heavy treatment can feel prestige on a controlled budget. Look for a splatter summer horror blast that leans hard into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is describing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both franchise faithful and curious audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build materials around mythos, and monster design, elements that can amplify premium format interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and historical speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that enhances both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video blends licensed content with global originals and small theatrical windows when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, fright rows, and staff picks to stretch the tail on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival deals, slotting horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two franchise movies steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed 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 favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using select theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By skew, 2026 tilts in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to market each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the configuration is grounded enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

Three-year comps contextualize the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not prevent a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, enables marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The director conversations behind 2026 horror forecast a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that leans on mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta pivot that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature execution and sets, which play well in expo activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case Check This Out feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tonal variety affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner grows into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 severe boss try to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to terror, based on Cronin’s practical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 family-home haunting scenario that plays with the unease of a child’s inconsistent perceptions. Rating: rating pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-scale and marquee-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at modern Get More Info genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family anchored to ancient dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker event, 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 antique diction and raw menace. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up with December 25 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three execution-level forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter schedules. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work meme-ready beats from test screenings, curated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the year flows for audiences

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

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, 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 detail, soundcraft, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.