Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across top digital platforms

This haunting occult thriller from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an ancient force when strangers become tools in a supernatural experiment. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of living through and prehistoric entity that will remodel the horror genre this cool-weather season. Guided by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and gothic feature follows five lost souls who regain consciousness sealed in a off-grid cabin under the oppressive manipulation of Kyra, a female lead dominated by a 2,000-year-old ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be hooked by a immersive venture that merges deep-seated panic with arcane tradition, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a mainstay foundation in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is radically shifted when the malevolences no longer arise from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This illustrates the grimmest corner of each of them. The result is a edge-of-seat spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a perpetual contest between divinity and wickedness.


In a haunting backcountry, five campers find themselves caught under the sinister influence and grasp of a unknown figure. As the companions becomes incapable to escape her curse, cut off and tormented by unknowns impossible to understand, they are cornered to battle their raw vulnerabilities while the countdown harrowingly ticks toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion rises and bonds shatter, pushing each survivor to rethink their true nature and the idea of self-determination itself. The intensity surge with every short lapse, delivering a paranormal ride that merges ghostly evil with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to draw upon deep fear, an spirit from prehistory, embedding itself in human fragility, and challenging a entity that threatens selfhood when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be available for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving streamers internationally can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first trailer, which has garnered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, extending the thrill to viewers around the world.


Don’t miss this cinematic descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to experience these unholy truths about our species.


For behind-the-scenes access, extra content, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s Turning Point: 2025 domestic schedule braids together myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, in parallel with series shake-ups

Ranging from life-or-death fear grounded in mythic scripture as well as IP renewals paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered paired with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors stabilize the year using marquee IP, as platform operators load up the fall with emerging auteurs plus ancestral chills. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is carried on the tailwinds of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The bar is raised this go, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Plays: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

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

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. No canon weight. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

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



The oncoming Horror year to come: follow-ups, fresh concepts, and also A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The brand-new genre cycle loads early with a January logjam, and then stretches through summer corridors, and pushing into the winter holidays, braiding brand heft, inventive spins, and smart counterweight. Studios and platforms are leaning into mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and social-fueled campaigns that transform genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror has solidified as the surest play in release strategies, a space that can grow when it connects and still safeguard the drag when it does not. After 2023 reassured executives that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can command audience talk, the following year kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and under-the-radar smashes. The energy translated to 2025, where returns and premium-leaning entries made clear there is a lane for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to director-led originals that export nicely. The combined impact for 2026 is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across the market, with mapped-out bands, a mix of brand names and new pitches, and a re-energized attention on theater exclusivity that boost PVOD and platform value on paid VOD and OTT platforms.

Executives say the horror lane now works like a schedule utility on the programming map. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, furnish a sharp concept for ad units and platform-native cuts, and outpace with audiences that line up on Thursday previews and return through the next weekend if the movie fires. After a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 setup underscores assurance in that logic. The calendar gets underway with a weighty January window, then exploits spring through early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall cadence that connects to Halloween and into November. The schedule also reflects the increasing integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and grow at the inflection point.

An added macro current is series management across ongoing universes and classic IP. The studios are not just mounting another installment. They are looking to package lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a new vibe or a cast configuration that reconnects a new installment to a first wave. At the concurrently, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing on-set craft, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That convergence hands the 2026 slate a healthy mix of known notes and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

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

Paramount fires first with two spotlight projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the focus, framing it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture announces a memory-charged strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push leaning on recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, melancholic, and big-hook: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that escalates into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit uncanny-valley stunts and bite-size content that threads love and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a proper title to become an PR pop closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are presented as auteur events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor lets the studio to saturate 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy style can feel premium on a mid-range budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that spotlights global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, continuing a steady supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around narrative world, and creature builds, elements that can stoke format premiums and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror built on immersive craft and period speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video will mix library titles with world buys and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix keeps flexible about first-party entries and festival additions, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception warrants. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Balance of brands and originals

By count, 2026 tilts in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the bundle is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not obstruct a day-and-date experiment from working when the brand was compelling. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror popped in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they pivot perspective and grow scope. 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 double feature plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, allows marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to leave creative active without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The craft rooms behind this slate suggest a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights unease and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is jammed. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by Check This Out a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion unfolds into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 tough boss scramble to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to chill, rooted in Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting story that twists the terror of a child’s uncertain senses. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult 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 genre lampoon that satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. 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 ignites, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family linked to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-core horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. 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 ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, news fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on repeatable beats from test screenings, curated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, offering breathing room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lower and 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The great post to read 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, 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 IP strength where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, 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 sharp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.