Mythic Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

An frightening metaphysical fright fest from author / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten force when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a devilish experiment. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing story of continuance and ancient evil that will reshape fear-driven cinema this October. Brought to life by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric suspense flick follows five young adults who snap to ensnared in a far-off structure under the dark rule of Kyra, a female presence dominated by a millennia-old biblical demon. Arm yourself to be hooked by a audio-visual journey that weaves together bodily fright with ancestral stories, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a long-standing narrative in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is radically shifted when the forces no longer develop externally, but rather within themselves. This symbolizes the most sinister element of these individuals. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the emotions becomes a relentless face-off between virtue and vice.


In a barren wilderness, five souls find themselves stuck under the evil force and domination of a shadowy female figure. As the cast becomes helpless to break her dominion, isolated and preyed upon by entities beyond comprehension, they are confronted to battle their deepest fears while the timeline without pause ticks onward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and links fracture, pushing each cast member to reconsider their existence and the principle of liberty itself. The stakes climb with every passing moment, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines demonic fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to channel deep fear, an power beyond time, emerging via mental cracks, and examining a entity that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra was centered on something far beyond human desperation. She is clueless until the invasion happens, and that evolution is terrifying because it is so deep.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving customers internationally can face this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has racked up over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this haunted journey into fear. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to explore these dark realities about inner darkness.


For sneak peeks, production insights, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror tipping point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate melds myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, together with legacy-brand quakes

Running from survivor-centric dread rooted in primordial scripture and onward to legacy revivals together with acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most textured as well as precision-timed year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio majors lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, even as OTT services flood the fall with unboxed visions set against ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, independent banners is propelled by the tailwinds of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp sets the tone with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, the Warner lot unveils the final movement from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in 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 looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No legacy baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching scare slate: Sequels, original films, And A packed Calendar geared toward frights

Dek: The fresh terror slate builds in short order with a January traffic jam, subsequently rolls through June and July, and deep into the winter holidays, blending name recognition, creative pitches, and savvy offsets. The big buyers and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that transform these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the steady lever in release plans, a category that can grow when it resonates and still safeguard the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that lean-budget pictures can galvanize the national conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The trend rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is a lane for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to director-led originals that travel well. The net effect for 2026 is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the field, with obvious clusters, a blend of known properties and new concepts, and a recommitted attention on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on paid VOD and streaming.

Studio leaders note the category now works like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. The genre can kick off on most weekends, generate a clear pitch for teasers and vertical videos, and lead with demo groups that respond on early shows and hold through the second weekend if the movie fires. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern underscores comfort in that engine. The calendar kicks off with a thick January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall cadence that runs into spooky season and past Halloween. The calendar also highlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and digital platforms that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and roll out at the proper time.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. Big banners are not just mounting another continuation. They are trying to present connection with a must-see charge, whether that is a graphic identity that announces a new tone or a talent selection that anchors a fresh chapter to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to physical effects work, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of known notes and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a nostalgia-forward campaign without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in iconic art, early character teases, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick updates to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an machine companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror uncanny live moments and short reels that hybridizes longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame opens a lane to dominate 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a gritty, in-camera leaning aesthetic can feel big on a disciplined budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can stoke premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in obsessive craft and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. The specialty arm has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre slate feed copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that expands both FOMO and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video continues to mix catalogue additions with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and collection rows to extend momentum on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix films and festival additions, slotting horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with award winners or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to move out. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception supports. Be ready for 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 as a pair, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The operating solution is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is emphasizing core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the packaging is assuring enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps announce the method. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in premium formats. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a mood teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to convention floor stunts and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. 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 foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around 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 heartbroken man’s digital partner escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to terror, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that threads the dread through a youth’s uneven personal vantage. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A genre lampoon that lampoons of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or rearranged in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter this page schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from test screenings, controlled scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth factor is programming math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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 heavy premium placement 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 stealth-hit search 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 harvest those lanes. 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 ratchet upward, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, acoustics, and imagery 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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, roll out exact trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.