Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

A bone-chilling supernatural suspense story from scriptwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an forgotten horror when passersby become pawns in a satanic game. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a intense narrative of overcoming and forgotten curse that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this October. Brought to life by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and eerie tale follows five strangers who emerge caught in a far-off shelter under the hostile manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure consumed by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Get ready to be ensnared by a cinematic spectacle that merges gut-punch terror with mythic lore, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a time-honored fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the malevolences no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather inside them. This mirrors the haunting side of these individuals. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the conflict becomes a ongoing fight between divinity and wickedness.


In a desolate woodland, five young people find themselves confined under the dark influence and control of a mysterious woman. As the companions becomes incapacitated to resist her influence, abandoned and stalked by spirits ungraspable, they are made to reckon with their emotional phantoms while the moments unceasingly winds toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear escalates and connections disintegrate, pressuring each figure to examine their character and the idea of autonomy itself. The danger accelerate with every beat, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges spiritual fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke core terror, an entity before modern man, operating within mental cracks, and challenging a spirit that redefines identity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was centered on something past sanity. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is deeply unsettling because it is so raw.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring customers anywhere can witness this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has earned over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, bringing the film to international horror buffs.


Join this haunted descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to face these chilling revelations about the soul.


For film updates, director cuts, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts blends old-world possession, independent shockers, together with legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories suffused with scriptural legend and including returning series plus surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most textured along with precision-timed year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio majors plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, while digital services prime the fall with new perspectives as well as old-world menace. Meanwhile, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, however this time, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal starts the year with a confident swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a modern-day environment. Steered by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving 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.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma as narrative engine, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, buttoning the final window.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
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 is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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 will tussle for space. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. 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 aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming chiller cycle: entries, original films, in tandem with A hectic Calendar optimized for chills

Dek: The new scare cycle loads early with a January wave, thereafter carries through midyear, and deep into the holiday stretch, braiding name recognition, new voices, and well-timed alternatives. Studios and streamers are betting on cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that frame genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has turned into the consistent move in release strategies, a genre that can expand when it lands and still buffer the floor when it under-delivers. After 2023 re-taught leaders that lean-budget pictures can drive social chatter, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam rolled into the 2025 frame, where reboots and arthouse crossovers showed there is a market for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The combined impact for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across companies, with purposeful groupings, a combination of household franchises and new concepts, and a refocused priority on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can roll out on many corridors, supply a simple premise for ad units and shorts, and outperform with ticket buyers that line up on Thursday nights and hold through the subsequent weekend if the offering pays off. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 mapping exhibits faith in that setup. The year kicks off with a crowded January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a fall run that carries into spooky season and past Halloween. The layout also illustrates the continuing integration of specialized labels and SVOD players that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and expand at the right moment.

A second macro trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and storied titles. Major shops are not just making another return. They are looking to package connection with a headline quality, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a refreshed voice or a casting choice that threads a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most watched originals are favoring on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That interplay gives 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and shock, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two marquee pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a fan-service aware approach without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive fueled by legacy iconography, early character teases, and a tease cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will spotlight. As a summer alternative, this one will drive four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever dominates pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man adopts an virtual partner that evolves into a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a stacked January, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on eerie street stunts and brief clips that hybridizes intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a public title to become an attention spike closer to the debut look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that holds back and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway creates space for Universal to take 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, in-camera leaning aesthetic can feel prestige on a lean spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand 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 a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can lift large-format demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre slate land on copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a sequence that elevates both launch urgency and subscription bumps in the tail. Prime Video pairs licensed films with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog discovery, using curated hubs, horror hubs, and editorial rows to keep attention on overall cume. Netflix retains agility about in-house releases and festival wins, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a laddered of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 arc with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a theatrical-first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to widen. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is assuring enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not hamper a hybrid test from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate point to a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores unease and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s synthetic partner escalates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: 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 prickly boss work to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 home-set haunting tale that plays with the terror of a child’s wobbly point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-grade and celebrity-led paranormal 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 genre lampoon that targets contemporary horror memes and true crime fascinations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family anchored to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: prepping news toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where modest-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, aural design, 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 Shapes Up Strong

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.