Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

An blood-curdling mystic thriller from screenwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primordial entity when newcomers become vehicles in a hellish game. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful tale of endurance and timeless dread that will revolutionize scare flicks this Halloween season. Brought to life by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and claustrophobic cinema piece follows five unknowns who emerge isolated in a remote house under the oppressive will of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a legendary ancient fiend. Arm yourself to be gripped by a audio-visual journey that intertwines bodily fright with arcane tradition, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a historical narrative in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reversed when the presences no longer arise externally, but rather internally. This symbolizes the most hidden element of the players. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the suspense becomes a brutal confrontation between innocence and sin.


In a barren wild, five characters find themselves isolated under the fiendish dominion and spiritual invasion of a mysterious apparition. As the group becomes unresisting to break her grasp, abandoned and preyed upon by powers impossible to understand, they are made to stand before their raw vulnerabilities while the final hour coldly ticks onward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease amplifies and links splinter, pushing each member to reconsider their personhood and the nature of conscious will itself. The tension grow with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that combines occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to awaken pure dread, an darkness rooted in antiquity, manifesting in soul-level flaws, and highlighting a curse that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for digital release beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering households everywhere can experience this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Experience this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Face *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to witness these nightmarish insights about free will.


For previews, extra content, and announcements from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across media channels and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s inflection point: the year 2025 stateside slate blends old-world possession, independent shockers, together with Franchise Rumbles

Beginning with survival horror infused with old testament echoes to brand-name continuations in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become the most complex and tactically planned year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio powerhouses stabilize the year with familiar IP, in parallel OTT services stack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs together with ancestral chills. Meanwhile, independent banners is carried on the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a clear present-tense world. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Directed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Scripted and led 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 darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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 platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

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

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Emerging Currents

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forward View: Autumn Overload and the 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The oncoming spook cycle: installments, standalone ideas, alongside A hectic Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek: The current terror cycle crams in short order with a January logjam, then flows through the summer months, and pushing into the year-end corridor, balancing name recognition, new concepts, and tactical counterweight. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and viral-minded pushes that frame these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror has established itself as the sturdy swing in studio slates, a genre that can scale when it breaks through and still safeguard the liability when it does not. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for strategy teams that lean-budget pictures can lead pop culture, the following year extended the rally with high-profile filmmaker pieces and stealth successes. The energy translated to the 2025 frame, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers made clear there is a lane for multiple flavors, from returning installments to one-and-done originals that translate worldwide. The takeaway for 2026 is a slate that looks unusually coordinated across players, with intentional bunching, a harmony of established brands and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated stance on exclusive windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now functions as a fill-in ace on the grid. Horror can launch on many corridors, provide a grabby hook for marketing and TikTok spots, and lead with fans that appear on early shows and sustain through the subsequent weekend if the feature works. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence reflects belief in that approach. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a fall run that extends to the Halloween corridor and into post-Halloween. The map also underscores the ongoing integration of indie distributors and streamers that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and move wide at the proper time.

Another broad trend is legacy care across unified worlds and heritage properties. Major shops are not just pushing another return. They are working to present brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title presentation that signals a new vibe or a casting move that reconnects a next film to a first wave. At the concurrently, the helmers behind the most anticipated originals are returning to practical craft, physical gags and vivid settings. That interplay affords the 2026 slate a smart balance of trust and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount sets the tone early with two prominent bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a fan-service aware strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run anchored in iconic art, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will build wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick shifts to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tight, tragic, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that grows into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to renew eerie street stunts and micro spots that hybridizes love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are treated as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven style can feel high-value on a middle budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror rush that emphasizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is describing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can fuel PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in minute detail and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ordering that maximizes both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video blends licensed films with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, seasonal hubs, and curated rows to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix stays nimble about own-slate titles and festival deals, timing horror entries near launch and turning into events go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of targeted cinema placements and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly activity when the genre conversation spikes.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is straightforward: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, updated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, this contact form then working the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-first horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception justifies. Look 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 in tandem, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By share, 2026 bends toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The concern, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to present each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the packaging is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the method. In 2023, a cinema-first model that held distribution windows did not preclude a day-and-date experiment from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium large format. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without extended gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued emphasis on real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which play well in fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

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 brooding contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the palette of tones carves a lane for useful reference each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s synthetic partner turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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: Lensed 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 face a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 difficult boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fright, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting setup that explores the terror of a child’s inconsistent perceptions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that skewers today’s horror trends and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras due to roll 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 breaks out, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family caught in old terrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 antique diction and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work meme-ready beats from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math also matters. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will cluster 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 pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The dark-horse 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, 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 prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, original 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.