Mythic Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, bowing Oct 2025 on premium platforms

A spine-tingling otherworldly fright fest from cinematographer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic terror when unrelated individuals become puppets in a dark struggle. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving depiction of resilience and age-old darkness that will alter horror this October. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and emotionally thick feature follows five characters who suddenly rise sealed in a isolated dwelling under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a central character overtaken by a millennia-old scriptural evil. Brace yourself to be captivated by a narrative presentation that fuses bodily fright with mystical narratives, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a iconic fixture in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the presences no longer develop from external sources, but rather inside their minds. This mirrors the darkest shade of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing internal warfare where the tension becomes a perpetual fight between moral forces.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five characters find themselves contained under the unholy sway and possession of a obscure apparition. As the cast becomes helpless to fight her curse, disconnected and followed by evils mind-shattering, they are made to battle their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds ruthlessly counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and connections shatter, prompting each member to doubt their identity and the structure of freedom of choice itself. The pressure amplify with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses paranormal dread with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to tap into basic terror, an presence beyond time, feeding on human fragility, and challenging a being that challenges autonomy when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra involved tapping into something far beyond human desperation. She is ignorant until the takeover begins, and that metamorphosis is emotionally raw because it is so private.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for digital release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering subscribers anywhere can watch this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first trailer, which has collected over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to thrill-seekers globally.


Do not miss this heart-stopping voyage through terror. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this launch day to acknowledge these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For featurettes, director cuts, and alerts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. lineup braids together old-world possession, signature indie scares, together with Franchise Rumbles

Moving from survival horror inspired by scriptural legend all the way to brand-name continuations as well as focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with precision-timed year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, concurrently digital services front-load the fall with fresh voices alongside primordial unease. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is drafting behind the uplift of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the other windows are mapped with care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: High-craft horror returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, inside today’s landscape. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. 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 port tuned to austere horror. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This run ups the stakes, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a sealed box body horror arc with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and helmed by 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror ascends again
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next scare Year Ahead: returning titles, universe starters, alongside A loaded Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek: The new scare year crowds right away with a January logjam, from there extends through the mid-year, and straight through the holidays, braiding franchise firepower, inventive spins, and data-minded offsets. Major distributors and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that position genre releases into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has emerged as the steady release in release strategies, a vertical that can spike when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reminded buyers that lean-budget fright engines can own mainstream conversation, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The trend flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is capacity for many shades, from series extensions to original features that travel well. The result for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across studios, with purposeful groupings, a combination of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a renewed focus on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can open on almost any weekend, generate a easy sell for teasers and short-form placements, and lead with ticket buyers that appear on advance nights and return through the second weekend if the entry connects. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence signals conviction in that approach. The slate opens with a crowded January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a fall cadence that runs into spooky season and into November. The arrangement also includes the tightening integration of indie arms and streamers that can platform and widen, create conversation, and scale up at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Big banners are not just producing another installment. They are working to present lineage with a specialness, whether that is a title design that signals a new vibe or a lead change that links a incoming chapter to a early run. At the same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing in-camera technique, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a throwback-friendly angle without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As movies a summer counter-slot, this one will drive wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick updates to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that escalates into a murderous partner. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that interweaves affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are presented as event films, with a opaque teaser and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven treatment can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending 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 been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart 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 fans and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around world-building, and creature work, elements that can increase deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

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 extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video pairs acquired titles with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, fright rows, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown a willingness to invest in select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 slate with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, reimagined for modern sound and image. 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 announced a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to scale. 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 often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception warrants. Look 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 hand in hand, using limited theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The workable fix is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to thread films through cast and motif and to leave creative active without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that foregrounds unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and medieval diction, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead press and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which match well with convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel essential. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. 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 bigger brand plays. 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 serious, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 bows February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s virtual companion becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: gothic-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 unyielding boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command swivels and his comment is here paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy Get More Info (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that teases the unease of a child’s mercurial perspective. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. 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: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound, and imagery 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the fear sell the seats.