Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, streaming Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This chilling otherworldly suspense film from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old force when newcomers become tokens in a hellish experiment. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching journey of survival and prehistoric entity that will transform terror storytelling this ghoul season. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and tone-heavy suspense flick follows five individuals who are stirred trapped in a wilderness-bound cabin under the malignant rule of Kyra, a tormented girl possessed by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Steel yourself to be shaken by a filmic event that intertwines bodily fright with mystical narratives, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a enduring foundation in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reimagined when the fiends no longer emerge from an outside force, but rather from deep inside. This represents the haunting facet of these individuals. The result is a riveting identity crisis where the emotions becomes a brutal confrontation between righteousness and malevolence.


In a desolate outland, five campers find themselves sealed under the sinister grip and spiritual invasion of a haunted entity. As the survivors becomes helpless to withstand her manipulation, isolated and stalked by unknowns unfathomable, they are cornered to battle their darkest emotions while the seconds without pity ticks toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and alliances disintegrate, forcing each individual to challenge their true nature and the notion of conscious will itself. The risk intensify with every passing moment, delivering a nightmarish journey that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to uncover basic terror, an entity before modern man, filtering through inner turmoil, and exposing a force that threatens selfhood when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra called for internalizing something rooted in terror. She is uninformed until the takeover begins, and that transition is emotionally raw because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that streamers no matter where they are can engage with this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, making the film to scare fans abroad.


Don’t miss this visceral trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to uncover these terrifying truths about the mind.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and news from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season domestic schedule fuses Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, plus Franchise Rumbles

Across survivor-centric dread grounded in legendary theology as well as franchise returns alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is coalescing into the most textured along with carefully orchestrated year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios plant stakes across the year with known properties, at the same time digital services pack the fall with fresh voices paired with mythic dread. At the same time, the art-house flank is buoyed by the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures sets the tone with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Helmed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, 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 arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. Here the stakes rise, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It hits in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No bloated canon. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

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

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new fear year to come: brand plays, universe starters, and also A brimming Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The upcoming scare slate clusters up front with a January wave, after that spreads through June and July, and carrying into the December corridor, fusing IP strength, untold stories, and data-minded alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that shape these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

The genre has become the sturdy option in distribution calendars, a category that can surge when it catches and still insulate the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that lean-budget horror vehicles can drive the discourse, the following year sustained momentum with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The trend rolled into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is demand for a spectrum, from series extensions to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a run that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of known properties and new concepts, and a refocused emphasis on exclusive windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can arrive on most weekends, provide a easy sell for creative and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with patrons that lean in on advance nights and hold through the sophomore frame if the release fires. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores comfort in that logic. The slate kicks off with a loaded January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a autumn push that reaches into late October and into the next week. The layout also reflects the greater integration of indie distributors and platforms that can nurture a platform play, spark evangelism, and broaden at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is series management across brand ecosystems and classic IP. The studios are not just mounting another chapter. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting choice that anchors a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are celebrating in-camera technique, practical effects and grounded locations. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

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

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, positioning the film as both a succession moment and a origin-leaning character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative stance suggests a heritage-honoring strategy without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Expect a marketing push fueled by recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will drive large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever rules the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man sets up an AI companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise creepy live activations and bite-size content that melds love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an event moment closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy style can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a hard-R summer horror hit that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is billing as a reset 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 sharper mandate to serve both diehards and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around lore, and monster design, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and dialect, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate flow to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that fortifies both FOMO and trial spikes in the tail. Prime Video blends acquired titles with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays nimble about in-house releases and festival buys, timing horror entries near their drops and framing as events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a tiered of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a situational basis. The Source platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to scale. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect 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 as a pair, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their user base.

Series vs standalone

By weight, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use name recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to package each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is known enough to build pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years clarify the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that maintained windows did not preclude a dual release from delivering when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to leave creative active without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind these films signal a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates unease and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which match well with con floor moments and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. Universal’s 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 atmospheric change-up amid big-brand pushes. 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 formidable, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 hardens 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront 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 demanding boss claw to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s material craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting scenario that channels the fear through a preteen’s shifting internal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and celebrity-led haunting thriller.

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 skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: closely held. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving forward. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 exploit those windows. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, audio design, and cinematography 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 Looks Exciting

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the gasps sell the seats.