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

An haunting paranormal horror tale from author / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an mythic nightmare when foreigners become instruments in a dark game. Launching October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing portrayal of continuance and timeless dread that will reshape terror storytelling this autumn. Directed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and shadowy suspense flick follows five teens who awaken locked in a secluded structure under the sinister sway of Kyra, a possessed female consumed by a timeless biblical demon. Ready yourself to be immersed by a immersive adventure that unites bodily fright with ancestral stories, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a enduring fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the dark entities no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather within themselves. This embodies the shadowy element of the players. The result is a harrowing mind game where the suspense becomes a constant contest between moral forces.


In a desolate outland, five young people find themselves trapped under the ghastly aura and grasp of a elusive apparition. As the youths becomes submissive to escape her dominion, exiled and pursued by forces indescribable, they are obligated to endure their soulful dreads while the doomsday meter unforgivingly moves toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust intensifies and alliances erode, urging each participant to evaluate their character and the notion of freedom of choice itself. The hazard accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a chilling narrative that combines unearthly horror with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to extract ancestral fear, an evil rooted in antiquity, emerging via emotional fractures, and examining a will that tests the soul when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something beneath mortal despair. She is insensitive until the entity awakens, and that transformation is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that streamers no matter where they are can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, presenting the nightmare to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this gripping journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to face these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For previews, production insights, and updates from behind the lens, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate Mixes old-world possession, Indie Shockers, alongside brand-name tremors

From survivor-centric dread grounded in scriptural legend and extending to returning series plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the most variegated paired with deliberate year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. major banners set cornerstones with known properties, even as digital services stack the fall with fresh voices set against ancestral chills. At the same time, indie storytellers is catching the momentum from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a statement play: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, the WB camp sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, with Francis Lawrence directing, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming genre slate: entries, original films, together with A brimming Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new genre year loads immediately with a January pile-up, thereafter rolls through midyear, and carrying into the holiday stretch, marrying series momentum, untold stories, and smart offsets. Major distributors and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that position these films into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the bankable tool in release plans, a category that can grow when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After 2023 reconfirmed for leaders that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can steer pop culture, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and surprise hits. The upswing rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings highlighted there is appetite for a spectrum, from sequel tracks to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a lineup that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a mix of legacy names and untested plays, and a sharpened strategy on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Marketers add the category now functions as a utility player on the grid. Horror can arrive on many corridors, create a easy sell for ad units and social clips, and punch above weight with fans that line up on Thursday previews and stick through the second frame if the movie works. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates certainty in that setup. The year rolls out with a thick January block, then leans on spring and early summer for balance, while clearing room for a fall run that carries into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The gridline also highlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and move wide at the inflection point.

An added macro current is IP cultivation across linked properties and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just producing another sequel. They are shaping as story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a fresh attitude or a cast configuration that connects a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring on-set craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That mix provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and invention, which is what works overseas.

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

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance hints at a fan-service aware mode without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign fueled by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward 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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will feature. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that escalates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s team likely to reprise uncanny live moments and brief clips that hybridizes intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as 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 reserves space for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are positioned as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date lets the studio to fill 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, hands-on effects treatment can feel high-value on a efficient spend. Expect a hard-R summer horror shot that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio lines up two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, extending a bankable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around canon, and creature work, elements that can stoke premium format interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and period language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and curated strips to extend momentum on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about originals and festival deals, finalizing horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around launches with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with prestige directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation swells.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is tight: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a traditional cinema play for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the fall weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Look 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 in tandem, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, 2026 favors the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the package is steady enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent comps help explain the method. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not prevent a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror popped in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years 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 shot consecutively, enables marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to sustain campaign assets without extended gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind this year’s genre forecast a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which are ideal for fan conventions and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that underscore precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. Universal’s 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 atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can thrive 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.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s AI companion grows into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first 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 push to survive on a remote island as the control dynamic reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 residential haunting narrative that pipes the unease through a kid’s unreliable personal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that teases modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shoot planned 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 surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a fresh family caught in returning horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBA. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that paused or recalendared in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on meme-ready beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundscape, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers weblink to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, distinct vision 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.