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

One chilling occult thriller from screenwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an mythic dread when drifters become tools in a malevolent conflict. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching journey of overcoming and old world terror that will reconstruct horror this season. Brought to life by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy motion picture follows five characters who find themselves confined in a remote shack under the hostile rule of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a timeless sacred-era entity. Brace yourself to be shaken by a motion picture experience that melds bone-deep fear with folklore, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a legendary motif in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reversed when the presences no longer come outside their bodies, but rather from deep inside. This represents the most terrifying facet of the cast. The result is a emotionally raw mind game where the events becomes a constant fight between innocence and sin.


In a haunting backcountry, five figures find themselves sealed under the ghastly dominion and control of a shadowy character. As the youths becomes unresisting to combat her grasp, abandoned and targeted by entities unimaginable, they are required to encounter their darkest emotions while the final hour unforgivingly ticks onward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust mounts and bonds erode, pushing each protagonist to reflect on their existence and the concept of self-determination itself. The tension escalate with every minute, delivering a scare-fueled ride that fuses spiritual fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to evoke deep fear, an power before modern man, operating within inner turmoil, and dealing with a entity that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something far beyond human desperation. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that transition is emotionally raw because it is so raw.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that horror lovers around the globe can engage with this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has seen over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, spreading the horror to fans of fear everywhere.


Tune in for this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to witness these dark realities about mankind.


For behind-the-scenes access, filmmaker commentary, and news from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit our horror hub.





American horror’s inflection point: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule blends legend-infused possession, underground frights, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories steeped in mythic scripture and onward to franchise returns in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is coalescing into the most textured together with tactically planned year of the last decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Top studios plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, simultaneously streamers load up the fall with new voices together with archetypal fear. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is surfing the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. dated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Helmed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

By late summer, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No legacy baggage. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. 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.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Near Term Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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 must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new terror lineup: follow-ups, standalone ideas, And A packed Calendar calibrated for frights

Dek The current genre season clusters from the jump with a January traffic jam, following that stretches through the mid-year, and deep into the holiday stretch, balancing brand equity, fresh ideas, and well-timed release strategy. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that pivot these films into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has solidified as the bankable option in annual schedules, a vertical that can expand when it lands and still buffer the exposure when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured greenlighters that cost-conscious shockers can own the discourse, the following year carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing rolled into 2025, where reboots and prestige plays made clear there is capacity for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to fresh IP that travel well. The combined impact for 2026 is a roster that seems notably aligned across distributors, with clear date clusters, a blend of known properties and new concepts, and a refocused emphasis on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and subscription services.

Insiders argue the space now works like a wildcard on the slate. The genre can arrive on virtually any date, provide a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and outpace with fans that come out on first-look nights and continue through the week two if the offering hits. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 mapping signals certainty in that equation. The calendar starts with a weighty January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a September to October window that extends to Halloween and past Halloween. The program also reflects the tightening integration of boutique distributors and digital platforms that can platform and widen, build word of mouth, and grow at the right moment.

A companion trend is franchise tending across brand ecosystems and established properties. The players are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a new vibe or a star attachment that connects a latest entry to a first wave. At the same time, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are favoring tactile craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a healthy mix of home base and unexpected turns, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate plays that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a roots-evoking approach without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run anchored in franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an machine companion that shifts into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and brief clips that blurs intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s releases are sold as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven mix can feel prestige on a middle budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is presenting as a reset 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 focus to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by meticulous craft and period language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre slate feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a pacing that optimizes both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the later window. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival pickups, locking in horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of precision releases and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to board select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping 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 pitch is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, elevated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a theatrical-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has worked well for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the model. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not deter a dual release from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued emphasis on physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature design and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that elevate disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month wraps 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 menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genes. 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 turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return movies to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 severe boss fight to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order flips and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting tale that explores the panic of a child’s inconsistent senses. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. 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 participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that lampoons today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new household anchored to older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and primordial menace. Rating: pending. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026, why now

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 quiet 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.