Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

A haunting ghostly scare-fest from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an age-old horror when guests become subjects in a malevolent ritual. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful episode of perseverance and age-old darkness that will transform genre cinema this ghoul season. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and moody motion picture follows five figures who come to isolated in a secluded structure under the sinister dominion of Kyra, a central character occupied by a timeless ancient fiend. Be prepared to be absorbed by a screen-based outing that melds bodily fright with folklore, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a enduring theme in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the spirits no longer manifest from elsewhere, but rather from their psyche. This symbolizes the most hidden side of the group. The result is a bone-chilling psychological battle where the drama becomes a constant conflict between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak wild, five campers find themselves sealed under the fiendish influence and spiritual invasion of a elusive spirit. As the characters becomes helpless to fight her grasp, exiled and preyed upon by spirits beyond reason, they are obligated to battle their inner demons while the doomsday meter unceasingly ticks toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and alliances erode, coercing each member to reconsider their character and the nature of liberty itself. The consequences rise with every beat, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes supernatural terror with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel pure dread, an threat that existed before mankind, manipulating human fragility, and dealing with a being that erodes the self when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra called for internalizing something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the entity awakens, and that transformation is shocking because it is so intimate.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that subscribers internationally can enjoy this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its release of trailer #1, which has been viewed over 100K plays.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, presenting the nightmare to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this unforgettable journey into fear. Experience *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these dark realities about human nature.


For previews, set experiences, and news from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule Mixes myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, set against series shake-ups

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror suffused with mythic scripture and including series comebacks set beside keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the richest together with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors lay down anchors using marquee IP, even as platform operators crowd the fall with fresh voices as well as ancestral chills. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is catching the echoes of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, which means 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal banner opens the year with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, the Warner Bros. banner rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It hits in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, 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. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped 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 looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streamers grow fangs
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Projection: Fall stack and winter swing card

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 terror cycle: continuations, non-franchise titles, alongside A packed Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The brand-new horror cycle builds right away with a January pile-up, subsequently runs through the summer months, and running into the festive period, weaving series momentum, original angles, and calculated counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into national conversation.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has shown itself to be the steady move in studio slates, a lane that can surge when it resonates and still protect the liability when it doesn’t. After 2023 showed studio brass that low-to-mid budget shockers can drive the discourse, 2024 sustained momentum with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The momentum pushed into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and critical darlings proved there is a lane for multiple flavors, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that shows rare alignment across studios, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of legacy names and untested plays, and a sharpened focus on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now operates like a plug-and-play option on the distribution slate. The genre can arrive on most weekends, yield a clear pitch for trailers and TikTok spots, and lead with ticket buyers that come out on advance nights and return through the second weekend if the movie delivers. Post a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 mapping signals assurance in that setup. The year begins with a heavy January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while carving room for a autumn stretch that stretches into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The gridline also shows the increasing integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can develop over weeks, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is brand strategy across shared universes and heritage properties. Major shops are not just rolling another chapter. They are aiming to frame continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a re-angled tone or a star attachment that threads a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are championing real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That fusion gives 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a baton pass and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a roots-evoking treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in franchise iconography, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will stress. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and micro spots that fuses love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has proven that a visceral, practical-first aesthetic can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that emphasizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is describing as a reset 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 clearer mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around lore, and creature effects, elements that can increase format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

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 sustains Eggers’ run of period horror defined by immersive craft and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a structure that amplifies both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the tail. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival pickups, dating horror entries on shorter runways and coalescing around rollouts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a big-screen first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to move out. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Watch for 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 jointly, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comps from the last three years clarify the method. In 2023, a cinema-first model that honored streaming windows did not block a parallel release from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror exceeded expectations in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and raise the stakes. 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 two-step approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character arcs and themes and to keep assets alive without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores tone and tension rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which match well with fan conventions and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam check my blog Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet 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 domestic haunting story that toys with the unease of a child’s mercurial perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-grade and name-above-title supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras due to roll 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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further reopens, with a different family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in this page 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space 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 exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, 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 dimensionality, sound field, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.