Antediluvian Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 on premium platforms

An chilling metaphysical suspense film from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an forgotten dread when newcomers become instruments in a hellish maze. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching account of overcoming and timeless dread that will resculpt scare flicks this autumn. Brought to life by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and moody tale follows five unknowns who regain consciousness caught in a hidden house under the unfriendly grip of Kyra, a cursed figure claimed by a prehistoric Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be absorbed by a immersive display that weaves together primitive horror with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a classic theme in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is challenged when the entities no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather from their psyche. This represents the darkest version of the group. The result is a bone-chilling inner struggle where the intensity becomes a unforgiving push-pull between innocence and sin.


In a haunting outland, five figures find themselves isolated under the possessive aura and infestation of a secretive entity. As the survivors becomes paralyzed to resist her dominion, severed and preyed upon by terrors mind-shattering, they are forced to acknowledge their emotional phantoms while the final hour ruthlessly winds toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear surges and bonds erode, compelling each individual to rethink their self and the concept of free will itself. The intensity mount with every passing moment, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together otherworldly panic with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to draw upon core terror, an force beyond time, emerging via emotional fractures, and exposing a power that tests the soul when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant channeling something deeper than fear. She is in denial until the control shifts, and that transition is harrowing because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for viewing beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that customers in all regions can get immersed in this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original clip, which has racked up over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, presenting the nightmare to thrill-seekers globally.


Do not miss this heart-stopping spiral into evil. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this launch day to survive these dark realities about our species.


For behind-the-scenes access, extra content, and social posts directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: the 2025 season U.S. lineup blends archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, and tentpole growls

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories suffused with legendary theology and extending to returning series together with surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the richest in tandem with carefully orchestrated year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios set cornerstones with established lines, simultaneously streamers stack the fall with discovery plays alongside ancestral chills. In parallel, the art-house flank is propelled by the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

At summer’s close, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It lands in December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold case horror anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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 reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. 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 remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are more runway than museum.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Signals and Trends

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Platform originals gain bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

What’s Next: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 genre year to come: installments, universe starters, alongside A busy Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The new genre slate crowds from the jump with a January logjam, from there rolls through summer, and continuing into the holiday frame, weaving brand equity, untold stories, and savvy counterweight. Studios and platforms are relying on cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and shareable marketing that shape these films into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the most reliable lever in distribution calendars, a lane that can spike when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it fails to connect. After 2023 demonstrated to greenlighters that lean-budget chillers can command pop culture, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The trend extended into 2025, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is a market for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The sum for the 2026 slate is a calendar that shows rare alignment across the industry, with defined corridors, a pairing of brand names and new concepts, and a sharpened attention on theater exclusivity that feed downstream value on premium rental and digital services.

Executives say the space now serves as a swing piece on the slate. Horror can launch on most weekends, supply a simple premise for marketing and vertical videos, and outstrip with fans that show up on Thursday previews and stay strong through the second weekend if the title satisfies. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup demonstrates comfort in that approach. The slate kicks off with a loaded January band, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while saving space for a late-year stretch that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The arrangement also includes the tightening integration of indie distributors and streamers that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and expand at the strategic time.

A companion trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and heritage properties. The studios are not just producing another chapter. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a title design that suggests a tonal shift or a ensemble decision that connects a fresh chapter to a classic era. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the marquee originals are returning to material texture, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a strong blend of trust and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a succession moment and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance telegraphs a roots-evoking strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also revives 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that evolves into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and micro spots that blurs attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood 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 creates space for a public title to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are set up as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a gritty, practical-effects forward treatment can feel top-tier on a controlled budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror charge that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now get redirected here a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around lore, and monster design, elements that can accelerate premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror defined by rigorous craft and period language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The label has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a cadence that fortifies both launch urgency and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and editorial rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops debuts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 pipeline with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to widen. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. 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 solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years announce the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not preclude a hybrid test from working when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they change perspective and elevate scope. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

Behind-the-camera trends

The shop talk behind 2026 horror foreshadow a continued tilt toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-aware reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

January is stacked. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid heftier brand moves. The month closes 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 serious, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late Q1 and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s great post to read 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 lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that center concept over reveals.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can win the holiday when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. 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 digital partner unfolds into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting scenario that manipulates the fright of a child’s mercurial point of view. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: major-studio and A-list fronted eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survivalist horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing. 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-faithful speech and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or reshuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 breakout hunt 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 use those gaps. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, optimized footprints, 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 grain, sound field, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand power where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join navigate here the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.