Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

An blood-curdling unearthly terror film from creator / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an mythic fear when outsiders become tokens in a fiendish maze. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing story of survival and primeval wickedness that will revamp the fear genre this autumn. Created by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and claustrophobic story follows five unacquainted souls who suddenly rise stuck in a off-grid house under the menacing rule of Kyra, a female lead overtaken by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be hooked by a narrative spectacle that integrates visceral dread with mystical narratives, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a historical tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is redefined when the malevolences no longer descend from an outside force, but rather through their own souls. This represents the deepest element of these individuals. The result is a enthralling emotional conflict where the intensity becomes a merciless contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a unforgiving outland, five souls find themselves sealed under the malicious grip and possession of a secretive figure. As the protagonists becomes powerless to combat her curse, abandoned and targeted by presences indescribable, they are forced to stand before their worst nightmares while the final hour unceasingly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia escalates and friendships implode, pushing each member to doubt their character and the concept of decision-making itself. The hazard escalate with every instant, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to evoke core terror, an power older than civilization itself, filtering through emotional fractures, and challenging a curse that strips down our being when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra involved tapping into something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the evil takes hold, and that pivot is eerie because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure households across the world can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has gathered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, bringing the film to international horror buffs.


Be sure to catch this life-altering journey into fear. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these ghostly lessons about our species.


For sneak peeks, extra content, and updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the film’s website.





The horror genre’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts Mixes myth-forward possession, underground frights, stacked beside tentpole growls

From survival horror steeped in mythic scripture through to franchise returns as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the richest paired with intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners hold down the year with franchise anchors, in parallel streamers pack the fall with emerging auteurs paired with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is carried on the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are calculated, hence 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, inside today’s landscape. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer winds down, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, 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.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No series drag. 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.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

What to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new fear cycle: follow-ups, fresh concepts, paired with A hectic Calendar designed for chills

Dek The current genre season builds up front with a January bottleneck, then extends through peak season, and deep into the winter holidays, blending name recognition, new concepts, and well-timed counterprogramming. Major distributors and platforms are embracing smart costs, theater-first strategies, and social-fueled campaigns that frame these films into all-audience topics.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has turned into the most reliable release in release strategies, a corner that can accelerate when it lands and still protect the liability when it does not. After the 2023 year showed buyers that lean-budget horror vehicles can shape the discourse, the following year sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The momentum translated to the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is a lane for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to original features that scale internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a grid that shows rare alignment across studios, with mapped-out bands, a combination of recognizable IP and novel angles, and a re-energized commitment on release windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now functions as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, yield a grabby hook for previews and TikTok spots, and outpace with crowds that show up on Thursday previews and hold through the subsequent weekend if the film connects. After a production delay era, the 2026 cadence demonstrates confidence in that model. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January run, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a fall corridor that carries into spooky season and past the holiday. The program also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialized imprints and streamers that can platform a title, spark evangelism, and widen at the right moment.

A notable top-line trend is series management across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studios are not just rolling another installment. They are setting up brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that ties a upcoming film to a heyday. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are returning to material texture, real effects and site-specific worlds. That blend yields 2026 a lively combination of recognition and newness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece entries that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach hints at a nostalgia-forward campaign without retreading the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout driven by classic imagery, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear plays. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that evolves into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo eerie street stunts and snackable content that fuses attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are presented as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that signal tone without plot the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, practical-first strategy can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror hit that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 focus to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify format premiums and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by careful craft and linguistic texture, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that expands both FOMO and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog discovery, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival snaps, slotting horror entries near launch and eventizing rollouts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of targeted cinema placements and accelerated 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 pressing direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence 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 tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern mix and grade. 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 suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage legacy awareness. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the assembly is comforting enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps contextualize the logic. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that observed windows did not obstruct a hybrid test from working when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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 shot consecutively, allows marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries signal a continued tilt toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that centers atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview 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 engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature craft and set design, which lend themselves to expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that explode in larger rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heavier IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The Source competition here is credible, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

February through May build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights 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 thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 confront a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 hard-edged boss work to survive on a isolated island as the chain of command swivels and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting narrative that teases the dread of a child’s unreliable read. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-supported and star-led occult chiller.

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 current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 flares, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a another family linked to long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on true survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, creating valuable space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones 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 benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 search for sleepers 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 stealth overachiever 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. Anticipate a robust 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 sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sonics, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.