Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primeval horror, a pulse pounding thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on global platforms

A haunting otherworldly suspense film from storyteller / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless dread when drifters become tools in a dark ordeal. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing portrayal of endurance and primordial malevolence that will resculpt the horror genre this spooky time. Guided by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and eerie fearfest follows five lost souls who emerge sealed in a unreachable wooden structure under the ominous will of Kyra, a female presence claimed by a time-worn religious nightmare. Steel yourself to be absorbed by a screen-based journey that melds bodily fright with mythic lore, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a iconic trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the entities no longer come from external sources, but rather inside them. This depicts the most hidden layer of each of them. The result is a harrowing emotional conflict where the suspense becomes a unyielding battle between heaven and hell.


In a unforgiving natural abyss, five individuals find themselves stuck under the unholy control and control of a uncanny being. As the team becomes vulnerable to fight her rule, severed and chased by terrors beyond reason, they are required to battle their deepest fears while the seconds brutally ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust deepens and connections collapse, prompting each figure to scrutinize their essence and the concept of personal agency itself. The threat accelerate with every second, delivering a fear-soaked story that combines occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to explore pure dread, an force rooted in antiquity, manipulating mental cracks, and navigating a darkness that challenges autonomy when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra needed manifesting something beyond human emotion. She is uninformed until the demon emerges, and that pivot is terrifying because it is so internal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering subscribers around the globe can watch this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this gripping ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these evil-rooted truths about inner darkness.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and news straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the official movie site.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves primeval-possession lore, indie terrors, in parallel with IP aftershocks

Moving from survivor-centric dread rooted in mythic scripture as well as IP renewals in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered combined with carefully orchestrated year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses stabilize the year with established lines, while platform operators saturate the fall with new voices alongside old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is surfing the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are exacting, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Helmed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: period tinged dread, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It lands in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Emerging Currents

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 Horror lineup: entries, standalone ideas, plus A brimming Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek: The new genre slate crams early with a January bottleneck, before it flows through midyear, and pushing into the year-end corridor, weaving brand equity, new voices, and tactical offsets. Major distributors and platforms are embracing responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that shape genre titles into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the sturdy move in annual schedules, a lane that can break out when it connects and still limit the liability when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reassured leaders that responsibly budgeted scare machines can drive pop culture, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The energy rolled into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to original features that travel well. The result for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across companies, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a renewed attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the distribution slate. Horror can launch on nearly any frame, yield a easy sell for teasers and short-form placements, and lead with fans that turn out on first-look nights and stick through the week two if the entry lands. Post a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan reflects confidence in that playbook. The calendar opens with a busy January block, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while leaving room for a October build that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and into November. The calendar also reflects the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and broaden at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Big banners are not just greenlighting another next film. They are working to present lineage with a specialness, whether that is a title design that indicates a refreshed voice or a cast configuration that connects a latest entry to a vintage era. At the same time, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are leaning into real-world builds, physical gags and concrete locations. That mix hands 2026 a smart balance of assurance and newness, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two spotlight titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a nostalgia-forward mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push driven by heritage visuals, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is efficient, heartbroken, and easily pitched: a grieving man onboards an artificial companion that escalates into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s team likely to recreate creepy live activations and short-form creative that mixes love and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a public title to become an marketing beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His entries are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that holds back and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The prime October weekend lets the studio to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a flesh-and-blood, practical-effects forward aesthetic can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Position this as a gore-forward summer horror rush that maximizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is framing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around world-building, and monster design, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in historical precision and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform tactics for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that optimizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival additions, slotting horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a one-two of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is curating a 2026 lane with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is straightforward: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, reimagined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the December frame to open out. That positioning has helped for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception prompts. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness household recognition. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Three-year comps illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued preference for in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that underscores creep and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature design and production design, which are ideal for con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that elevate razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. 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 moody palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month closes 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 legit, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring tee up summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s synthetic partner escalates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Get More Info 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 prickly boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the control balance tilts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fear, grounded in Cronin’s tactile craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that filters its scares through a young child’s shifting perspective. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that targets in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime buzz. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 detonates, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a young family linked to ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress horror on survival-core horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or reshuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions 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 appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, 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 visual texture, sonics, and visual design 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, Lined Up To Scare

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, original vision where it matters, 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.