Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across leading streamers

An chilling metaphysical nightmare movie from narrative craftsman / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an age-old horror when passersby become pawns in a cursed conflict. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of endurance and age-old darkness that will revamp fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Directed by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy fearfest follows five characters who arise sealed in a remote hideaway under the hostile control of Kyra, a haunted figure possessed by a timeless Old Testament spirit. Ready yourself to be hooked by a narrative event that unites primitive horror with ancestral stories, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a classic fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the fiends no longer appear from a different plane, but rather from their core. This mirrors the malevolent corner of the group. The result is a bone-chilling cognitive warzone where the narrative becomes a soul-crushing clash between purity and corruption.


In a barren backcountry, five youths find themselves cornered under the possessive sway and infestation of a unidentified entity. As the companions becomes unable to escape her dominion, severed and attacked by forces beyond reason, they are thrust to face their raw vulnerabilities while the deathwatch harrowingly counts down toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease rises and links dissolve, demanding each figure to contemplate their self and the foundation of independent thought itself. The threat rise with every heartbeat, delivering a frightening tale that blends mystical fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into raw dread, an evil that predates humanity, manipulating human fragility, and navigating a curse that dismantles free will when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra needed manifesting something far beyond human desperation. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that transition is gut-wrenching because it is so intimate.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing fans no matter where they are can get immersed in this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has seen over strong viewer count.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, offering the tale to scare fans abroad.


Tune in for this haunted exploration of dread. Enter *Young & Cursed* this launch day to uncover these nightmarish insights about free will.


For featurettes, production news, and social posts directly from production, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, alongside returning-series thunder

Beginning with life-or-death fear grounded in ancient scripture to IP renewals set beside incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex together with carefully orchestrated year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors lay down anchors via recognizable brands, concurrently OTT services prime the fall with new perspectives and ancient terrors. On another front, festival-forward creators is carried on the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are methodical, and 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal lights the fuse with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Steered by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. Pictures rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: 70s style chill, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

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

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next genre year to come: next chapters, new stories, in tandem with A jammed Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The incoming terror cycle crowds up front with a January traffic jam, following that carries through the summer months, and running into the holidays, braiding series momentum, inventive spins, and calculated alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are embracing mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that transform the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the consistent move in annual schedules, a lane that can accelerate when it breaks through and still buffer the downside when it stumbles. After 2023 reminded buyers that low-to-mid budget entries can drive audience talk, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam pushed into 2025, where revived properties and festival-grade titles confirmed there is room for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that export nicely. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a calendar that looks unusually coordinated across companies, with mapped-out bands, a spread of marquee IP and new concepts, and a re-energized commitment on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Insiders argue the category now serves as a plug-and-play option on the distribution slate. Horror can roll out on many corridors, provide a quick sell for teasers and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with viewers that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the week two if the feature connects. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 mapping underscores assurance in that equation. The year commences with a loaded January block, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while keeping space for a fall corridor that stretches into late October and into the next week. The layout also illustrates the deeper integration of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and widen at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across unified worlds and long-running brands. The companies are not just turning out another continuation. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that suggests a new tone or a cast configuration that anchors a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are favoring tactile craft, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That alloy provides 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and invention, which is how the films export.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee bets that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a succession moment and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach points to a legacy-leaning angle without covering again the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push built on classic imagery, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will drive large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format allowing quick shifts to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an algorithmic mate that escalates into a killer companion. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew uncanny live moments and short reels that interweaves intimacy and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are branded as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a tactile, makeup-driven aesthetic can feel big on a disciplined budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, holding a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is marketing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on obsessive craft and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that boosts both debut momentum and trial spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends acquired titles with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival deals, timing horror entries toward the drop and staging as events debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of precision releases and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for retention when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clear: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a standard theatrical run for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to move out. That positioning has delivered for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using mini theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness household recognition. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive window model that observed windows did not deter a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years horror Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate point to a continued shift toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature work and production design, which work nicely for booth activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring set up the summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines 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 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate grows into something deadly romantic. 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command tilts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to chill, founded on Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting scenario that toys with the chill of a child’s uncertain interpretations. Rating: TBD. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-built and star-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 dark-horse hit 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. Expect a healthy 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 sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, 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 surface detail, soundcraft, 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 adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.