Antediluvian Horror Returns in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, bowing October 2025 across top streamers

An eerie otherworldly terror film from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless evil when strangers become tools in a devilish struggle. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving chronicle of staying alive and archaic horror that will remodel genre cinema this season. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and cinematic fearfest follows five young adults who are stirred caught in a unreachable hideaway under the sinister influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a screen-based venture that weaves together soul-chilling terror with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a enduring tradition in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the spirits no longer originate from external sources, but rather inside their minds. This marks the haunting aspect of all involved. The result is a riveting moral showdown where the story becomes a brutal conflict between heaven and hell.


In a desolate wild, five characters find themselves confined under the possessive sway and haunting of a haunted person. As the characters becomes incapacitated to combat her command, marooned and chased by terrors inconceivable, they are forced to confront their worst nightmares while the deathwatch unforgivingly moves toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension surges and alliances crack, driving each protagonist to reconsider their character and the foundation of liberty itself. The cost escalate with every tick, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into ancestral fear, an darkness that existed before mankind, influencing our weaknesses, and wrestling with a darkness that challenges autonomy when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra needed manifesting something beyond human emotion. She is ignorant until the spirit seizes her, and that pivot is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that audiences internationally can be part of this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, delivering the story to scare fans abroad.


Mark your calendar for this visceral path of possession. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to dive into these ghostly lessons about the soul.


For bonus footage, on-set glimpses, and promotions directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit the official movie site.





Contemporary horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate blends myth-forward possession, independent shockers, together with IP aftershocks

Kicking off with survival horror suffused with near-Eastern lore and onward to canon extensions as well as keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into the most complex and deliberate year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. the big studios bookend the months using marquee IP, even as streaming platforms front-load the fall with discovery plays plus ancestral chills. On the festival side, the independent cohort is fueled by the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, thus 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal camp kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, the Warner Bros. banner rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and those signature textures resurface: nostalgic menace, trauma as text, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

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

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The approaching fright year to come: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A busy Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek The new horror cycle builds up front with a January bottleneck, then extends through peak season, and carrying into the year-end corridor, braiding brand heft, new voices, and savvy offsets. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing right-sized spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and viral-minded pushes that position horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The field has emerged as the steady counterweight in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it clicks and still buffer the drawdown when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year re-taught studio brass that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize pop culture, the following year extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The tailwind pushed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and critical darlings made clear there is a market for multiple flavors, from sequel tracks to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The upshot for 2026 is a slate that presents tight coordination across the industry, with strategic blocks, a harmony of known properties and untested plays, and a tightened focus on theater exclusivity that fuel later windows on premium video on demand and digital services.

Schedulers say the horror lane now acts as a versatile piece on the schedule. Horror can premiere on many corridors, yield a tight logline for teasers and short-form placements, and punch above weight with patrons that arrive on first-look nights and stay strong through the sophomore frame if the picture fires. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern signals trust in that playbook. The slate gets underway with a thick January band, then turns to spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that pushes into late October and past the holiday. The arrangement also reflects the expanded integration of specialized labels and OTT outlets that can platform a title, create conversation, and widen at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is brand strategy across interlocking continuities and classic IP. Studio teams are not just making another sequel. They are working to present story carry-over with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that conveys a reframed mood or a lead change that anchors a new entry to a first wave. At the same time, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into tactile craft, real effects and site-specific worlds. That blend offers the 2026 slate a lively combination of brand comfort and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a throwback-friendly campaign without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Expect a marketing push fueled by brand visuals, first-look character reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format permitting quick turns to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is crisp, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that shifts into a lethal partner. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to reprise strange in-person beats and short reels that melds companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates 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 slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are framed as event films, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway lets the studio to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has established that a tactile, hands-on effects approach can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror surge that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around world-building, and monster design, elements that can amplify large-format demand and convention buzz.

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 sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and period speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves third-party pickups with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with acclaimed directors or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 runway 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 angle is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, refined for modern mix and image. 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 big-screen first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using boutique theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By proportion, 2026 bends toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a check my blog buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. 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 survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the assembly is assuring enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set announce the method. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not foreclose a day-date try from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in premium formats. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre point to a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that underscores creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which align with expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. 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 headline IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to 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 devastated man’s artificial companion becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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

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 meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting premise that filters its scares through a kid’s volatile inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody return that pokes at today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. 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 detonates, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further extends again, with a different family snared by old terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: active. 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 era-accurate language and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where 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 press those advantages. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals Young & Cursed 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, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.