Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives ancient terror, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across major streaming services

This eerie mystic suspense film from screenwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic malevolence when unrelated individuals become proxies in a cursed ritual. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish episode of resistance and age-old darkness that will resculpt terror storytelling this Halloween season. Created by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and tone-heavy film follows five characters who regain consciousness stuck in a wooded house under the menacing power of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a two-thousand-year-old sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be seized by a immersive venture that melds intense horror with ancestral stories, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic theme in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is inverted when the malevolences no longer form from an outside force, but rather from within. This illustrates the darkest element of these individuals. The result is a enthralling psychological battle where the plotline becomes a unyielding clash between good and evil.


In a haunting wilderness, five figures find themselves confined under the possessive presence and control of a obscure apparition. As the cast becomes powerless to reject her power, stranded and followed by evils unfathomable, they are confronted to endure their inner demons while the hours brutally runs out toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and links break, demanding each soul to question their character and the concept of decision-making itself. The danger mount with every minute, delivering a paranormal ride that fuses otherworldly suspense with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to tap into pure dread, an malevolence before modern man, channeling itself through our fears, and confronting a presence that peels away humanity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the entity awakens, and that transition is terrifying because it is so personal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering fans internationally can witness this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, making the film to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this soul-jarring trip into the unknown. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to confront these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For behind-the-scenes access, making-of footage, and announcements from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s major pivot: 2025 stateside slate interlaces biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, plus franchise surges

Kicking off with survivor-centric dread suffused with old testament echoes all the way to IP renewals in concert with surgical indie voices, 2025 is lining up as the most complex together with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. major banners lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, as streamers saturate the fall with new perspectives paired with old-world menace. In parallel, festival-forward creators is surfing the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

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

Universal’s pipeline opens the year with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. timed for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time the stakes climb, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

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 From Within: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

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 reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new spook lineup: Sequels, new stories, plus A packed Calendar geared toward frights

Dek: The upcoming horror slate builds from day one with a January bottleneck, after that extends through the summer months, and running into the winter holidays, marrying brand heft, novel approaches, and data-minded counterweight. Distributors with platforms are embracing efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and buzz-forward plans that transform genre titles into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror has turned into the bankable option in studio calendars, a space that can break out when it hits and still protect the drag when it does not. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for decision-makers that modestly budgeted horror vehicles can galvanize social chatter, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The tailwind fed into 2025, where resurrections and prestige plays made clear there is space for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a grid that appears tightly organized across the market, with obvious clusters, a combination of marquee IP and untested plays, and a tightened attention on theater exclusivity that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and streaming.

Buyers contend the horror lane now behaves like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. Horror can arrive on numerous frames, generate a quick sell for ad units and vertical videos, and outstrip with fans that lean in on opening previews and continue through the subsequent weekend if the release lands. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup telegraphs conviction in that setup. The calendar begins with a weighty January block, then primes spring and early summer for balance, while holding room for a autumn stretch that reaches into spooky season and into November. The gridline also shows the increasing integration of boutique distributors and SVOD players that can grow from platform, create conversation, and grow at the inflection point.

A companion trend is brand strategy across shared universes and heritage properties. The companies are not just greenlighting another installment. They are working to present brand continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title treatment that signals a re-angled tone or a cast configuration that binds a incoming chapter to a classic era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring hands-on technique, in-camera effects and place-driven backdrops. That pairing produces 2026 a robust balance of comfort and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate titles that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the core, positioning the film as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character-first story. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach indicates a roots-evoking campaign without going over the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive fueled by franchise iconography, intro reveals, and a tease cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick redirects to whatever leads the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is straightforward, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man onboards an synthetic partner that unfolds into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to bring back viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that blurs intimacy and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an PR pop closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s releases are presented as marquee events, with a opaque teaser and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween runway lets the studio to maximize 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has established that a tactile, physical-effects centered strategy can feel prestige on a controlled budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror jolt that centers foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio books two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in Check This Out what the studio is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can drive large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror driven by immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is warm.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that maximizes both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the tail. Prime Video combines licensed films with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival deals, timing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around premieres with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two IP 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 audio-visual craft. 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 theatrical rollout for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by 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 together, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate favors the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The go-to fix is to market each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the package is steady enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Three-year comps help explain the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from hitting when the brand was sticky. In 2024, precision craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror signal a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster realization and design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

January is stacked. 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 moody palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends 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 real, but the range of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth spreads.

Early-year through spring seed summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 family-home haunting premise that manipulates the panic of a child’s wobbly interpretations. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and marquee-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that needles hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a fresh family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-core horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. 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 period language and raw menace. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, metered scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes 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 take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 surprise 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a sampler, 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 goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, 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 camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, 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, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.