Mythic Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

This unnerving unearthly nightmare movie from author / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an age-old nightmare when foreigners become subjects in a fiendish experiment. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing story of survival and ancient evil that will reconstruct terror storytelling this scare season. Created by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy film follows five unacquainted souls who suddenly rise stuck in a unreachable shelter under the aggressive influence of Kyra, a female lead dominated by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Arm yourself to be shaken by a screen-based venture that blends instinctive fear with arcane tradition, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a legendary theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is subverted when the beings no longer come externally, but rather from their core. This depicts the shadowy layer of the players. The result is a harrowing psychological battle where the narrative becomes a perpetual clash between righteousness and malevolence.


In a haunting landscape, five characters find themselves contained under the ghastly presence and spiritual invasion of a haunted character. As the cast becomes unable to oppose her grasp, exiled and stalked by evils ungraspable, they are thrust to confront their inner horrors while the time mercilessly edges forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust escalates and links splinter, pressuring each soul to doubt their identity and the notion of liberty itself. The tension grow with every breath, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends unearthly horror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel instinctual horror, an power that existed before mankind, influencing psychological breaks, and dealing with a evil that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant channeling something beyond human emotion. She is unseeing until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so close.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving fans in all regions can dive into this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original promo, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, delivering the story to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this heart-stopping descent into hell. Experience *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to experience these unholy truths about free will.


For bonus footage, set experiences, and announcements from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across online outlets and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. release slate blends primeval-possession lore, microbudget gut-punches, paired with series shake-ups

Ranging from survival horror drawn from biblical myth as well as canon extensions alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the most textured along with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios set cornerstones with established lines, at the same time premium streamers saturate the fall with new voices alongside old-world menace. On the festival side, independent banners is catching the tailwinds of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, inside today’s landscape. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and those signature textures resurface: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated canon. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. 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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The next Horror slate: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, alongside A packed Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek: The new genre season stacks at the outset with a January logjam, subsequently spreads through June and July, and carrying into the winter holidays, fusing name recognition, novel approaches, and tactical alternatives. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that shape these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has solidified as the dependable lever in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it catches and still hedge the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that cost-conscious horror vehicles can steer pop culture, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and surprise hits. The upswing carried into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for many shades, from series extensions to non-IP projects that travel well. The result for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across studios, with mapped-out bands, a combination of established brands and new pitches, and a revived emphasis on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the category now acts as a flex slot on the grid. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, supply a quick sell for teasers and TikTok spots, and over-index with patrons that line up on previews Thursday and sustain through the second weekend if the entry works. Coming out of a production delay era, the 2026 mapping indicates trust in that playbook. The slate commences with a front-loaded January window, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a September to October window that connects to All Hallows period and into early November. The arrangement also shows the increasing integration of boutique distributors and platforms that can build gradually, grow buzz, and move wide at the precise moment.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across unified worlds and heritage properties. The companies are not just pushing another next film. They are setting up connection with a sense of event, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a refreshed voice or a talent selection that reconnects a latest entry to a vintage era. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the most watched originals are leaning into hands-on technique, practical effects and distinct locales. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a solid mix of familiarity and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

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

Paramount opens strong with two prominent releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a relay and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a classic-referencing treatment without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout rooted in heritage visuals, initial cast looks, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also brings back 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined projects. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an AI companion that turns into a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with the Universal machine likely to revisit creepy live activations and brief clips that hybridizes love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are branded as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to command 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, practical-first aesthetic can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that emphasizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio mounts two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is framing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both players and first-timers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build promo materials around narrative world, and creature effects, elements that can accelerate format premiums and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that maximizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and click site Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using curated hubs, October hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival grabs, timing horror entries closer to launch and framing as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a paired of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has indicated interest to board select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-driven genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception drives. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using targeted theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Balance of brands and originals

By share, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness household recognition. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is steady enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was potent. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind 2026 horror indicate a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights mood and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which fit with booth activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that highlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tone spread creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth carries.

Early-year through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can succeed 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 run their PLF course.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s artificial companion grows into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: mood-led 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 abrasive boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

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 renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting story that pipes the unease through a minor’s flickering inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new household anchored to past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: continuing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three hands-on forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, creating valuable space 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 jostle across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundcraft, and picture 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

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand power where it counts, distinct 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.