Age-old Horror emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, rolling out October 2025 on leading streamers

This haunting spiritual thriller from narrative craftsman / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primordial force when drifters become tokens in a fiendish ordeal. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking depiction of perseverance and old world terror that will revolutionize horror this scare season. Helmed by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and cinematic screenplay follows five lost souls who wake up caught in a unreachable wooden structure under the sinister sway of Kyra, a tormented girl consumed by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Brace yourself to be absorbed by a big screen display that blends bodily fright with biblical origins, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a enduring trope in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the forces no longer originate from an outside force, but rather within themselves. This embodies the shadowy part of the cast. The result is a gripping psychological battle where the events becomes a unforgiving conflict between heaven and hell.


In a bleak wild, five figures find themselves contained under the dark presence and spiritual invasion of a secretive character. As the characters becomes incapable to withstand her dominion, cut off and followed by creatures unnamable, they are confronted to confront their raw vulnerabilities while the doomsday meter relentlessly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease grows and ties break, demanding each soul to question their personhood and the notion of conscious will itself. The pressure intensify with every breath, delivering a terror ride that marries otherworldly suspense with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to tap into instinctual horror, an curse beyond time, emerging via fragile psyche, and confronting a presence that strips down our being when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is in denial until the control shifts, and that shift is eerie because it is so close.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing watchers internationally can watch this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has gathered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, delivering the story to international horror buffs.


Join this heart-stopping path of possession. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to face these ghostly lessons about existence.


For cast commentary, making-of footage, and promotions via the production team, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit the movie’s homepage.





Current horror’s tipping point: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar Mixes old-world possession, festival-born jolts, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Moving from survivor-centric dread drawn from scriptural legend and stretching into legacy revivals as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most textured paired with calculated campaign year in a decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio majors stabilize the year with established lines, in tandem OTT services front-load the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with legend-coded dread. On another front, the art-house flank is drafting behind the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween stays the prime week, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are intentional, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with a bold swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. set for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated canon. No franchise baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

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

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

Legacy Brands: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror ascends again
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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 have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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 oncoming chiller calendar year ahead: brand plays, standalone ideas, And A hectic Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror calendar loads at the outset with a January logjam, subsequently spreads through midyear, and deep into the festive period, combining franchise firepower, original angles, and calculated counterprogramming. The major players are focusing on mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that elevate genre titles into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has established itself as the sturdy move in release strategies, a space that can break out when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that modestly budgeted pictures can drive pop culture, 2024 extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The tailwind fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles made clear there is space for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a slate that is strikingly coherent across players, with clear date clusters, a mix of legacy names and original hooks, and a refocused priority on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Schedulers say the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the programming map. Horror can arrive on a wide range of weekends, furnish a grabby hook for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with demo groups that appear on preview nights and sustain through the follow-up frame if the offering delivers. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration shows belief in that equation. The calendar gets underway with a thick January band, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a fall corridor that extends to Halloween and into early November. The program also highlights the deeper integration of arthouse labels and platforms that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and grow at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Studios are not just turning out another entry. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that suggests a fresh attitude or a talent selection that ties a next entry to a original cycle. At the same time, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing material texture, in-camera effects and grounded locations. That interplay hands 2026 a confident blend of brand comfort and novelty, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

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

Paramount opens strong with two prominent releases that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the core, steering it as both a relay and a heritage-centered character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a memory-charged angle without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout stacked with signature symbols, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a summer relief option, this one will seek broad awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format fitting quick switches to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three differentiated strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that grows into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to recreate odd public stunts and short-form creative that interlaces romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a proper title to become an headline beat closer to the first trailer. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are branded as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven treatment can feel deluxe on a moderate cost. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is billing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror built on minute detail and dialect, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both debut momentum and sign-up spikes in the later phase. Prime Video pairs licensed films with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix originals and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a discrete basis. The platform has been willing to purchase select projects with weblink award winners or star packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 track with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday frame to open out. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Plan on 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 hand in hand, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By volume, 2026 skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and talent-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller 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 team and cast is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps frame the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not hamper a dual release from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to link the films through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre point to a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that highlights unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature craft and set design, which align with expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that elevate 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month closes 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 formidable, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 demanding boss work to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s hands-on craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that filters its scares through a minor’s unsteady point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A genre lampoon that pokes at modern genre fads and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. 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.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far click site below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 modest-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and framing 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, 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 lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.