Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

This eerie otherworldly terror film from narrative craftsman / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten force when unknowns become tools in a diabolical ritual. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking story of staying alive and primordial malevolence that will transform fear-driven cinema this scare season. Directed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and eerie motion picture follows five unknowns who come to imprisoned in a isolated cabin under the unfriendly grip of Kyra, a central character occupied by a antiquated sacrosanct terror. Brace yourself to be drawn in by a screen-based event that fuses bone-deep fear with ancestral stories, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a well-established concept in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the monsters no longer originate outside the characters, but rather from their psyche. This represents the most sinister part of all involved. The result is a relentless internal warfare where the tension becomes a perpetual confrontation between divinity and wickedness.


In a isolated forest, five figures find themselves stuck under the evil influence and curse of a secretive figure. As the cast becomes powerless to break her command, marooned and attacked by powers impossible to understand, they are confronted to battle their inner demons while the deathwatch without pity pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread swells and ties erode, prompting each individual to contemplate their true nature and the notion of volition itself. The stakes accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a terror ride that marries occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dig into elemental fright, an force that existed before mankind, channeling itself through human fragility, and exposing a force that questions who we are when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra needed manifesting something unfamiliar to reason. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that flip is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing horror lovers around the globe can dive into this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first trailer, which has gathered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Explore *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to acknowledge these dark realities about the human condition.


For film updates, director cuts, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across entertainment pages and visit the official website.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets stateside slate interlaces biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, plus brand-name tremors

Moving from survivor-centric dread steeped in mythic scripture and stretching into series comebacks plus focused festival visions, 2025 is coalescing into the genre’s most multifaceted paired with calculated campaign year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors plant stakes across the year with known properties, in tandem OTT services pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and primordial unease. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is catching the uplift of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a modern-day environment. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, 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 installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga starring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, 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 terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward 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.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No franchise baggage. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

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

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror swings back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

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 scrap for air. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The coming 2026 fright slate: installments, universe starters, as well as A brimming Calendar Built For goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new genre slate builds from day one with a January wave, thereafter extends through summer corridors, and continuing into the holidays, fusing marquee clout, new concepts, and tactical offsets. Major distributors and platforms are betting on lean spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that position these films into water-cooler talk.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has emerged as the bankable release in release plans, a lane that can grow when it connects and still buffer the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that mid-range horror vehicles can drive audience talk, the following year sustained momentum with signature-voice projects and under-the-radar smashes. The momentum pushed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and prestige plays underscored there is capacity for different modes, from continued chapters to fresh IP that carry overseas. The sum for the 2026 slate is a programming that reads highly synchronized across studios, with defined corridors, a pairing of brand names and new packages, and a reinvigorated emphasis on cinema windows that drive downstream revenue on premium on-demand and SVOD.

Insiders argue the category now behaves like a utility player on the slate. Horror can bow on most weekends, supply a grabby hook for ad units and shorts, and outpace with crowds that show up on preview nights and return through the follow-up frame if the movie works. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping exhibits certainty in that equation. The slate opens with a front-loaded January run, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall cadence that carries into spooky season and past Halloween. The gridline also spotlights the stronger partnership of indie distributors and streamers that can build gradually, create conversation, and widen at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is brand management across ongoing universes and heritage properties. The players are not just rolling another installment. They are seeking to position continuity with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that announces a fresh attitude or a star attachment that anchors a next film to a vintage era. At the same time, the directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing practical craft, practical gags and distinct locales. That mix hands the 2026 slate a confident blend of brand comfort and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character study. Cameras are this contact form rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a legacy-leaning mode without recycling the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout fueled by classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will go after large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, soulful, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with the Universal machine likely to renew creepy live activations and short reels that mixes companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working 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 branding reveal to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are positioned as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to take 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, physical-effects centered mix can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror shock that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined 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 well-defined brief to serve both players and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can fuel format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in minute detail and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries feed copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a tiered path that enhances both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video combines licensed content with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library curation, using in-app campaigns, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix films and festival additions, locking in horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a laddered of precision theatrical plays and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown a willingness to acquire select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track 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 setup is straightforward: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, reimagined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday slot to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is diminishing returns. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is emphasizing character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not obstruct a dual release from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and widen scale. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, permits marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without dead zones.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued lean toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and spurs shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar cadence

January is busy. 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 foggy reset amid larger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the range of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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 confront a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 severe boss try to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that toys with the horror of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 bursts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family linked to old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 time-true diction and elemental fear. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 cost-efficient 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 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound field, 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.