Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing October 2025 on global platforms

A blood-curdling otherworldly suspense film from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an mythic fear when newcomers become subjects in a fiendish ceremony. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking narrative of resilience and primeval wickedness that will revamp genre cinema this cool-weather season. Realized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric story follows five people who arise stuck in a wilderness-bound lodge under the hostile will of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Be prepared to be gripped by a immersive ride that intertwines soul-chilling terror with spiritual backstory, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a well-established concept in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the beings no longer develop from a different plane, but rather deep within. This illustrates the haunting aspect of the protagonists. The result is a relentless psychological battle where the suspense becomes a merciless contest between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving landscape, five campers find themselves marooned under the malicious presence and inhabitation of a obscure figure. As the ensemble becomes powerless to combat her rule, marooned and preyed upon by spirits beyond reason, they are driven to encounter their inner horrors while the time harrowingly strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease intensifies and friendships break, pressuring each character to challenge their core and the concept of conscious will itself. The stakes surge with every beat, delivering a horror experience that combines ghostly evil with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore primitive panic, an threat from ancient eras, filtering through inner turmoil, and testing a spirit that challenges autonomy when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra asked for exploring something beneath mortal despair. She is in denial until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is haunting because it is so raw.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering watchers around the globe can witness this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has racked up over a viral response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, presenting the nightmare to viewers around the world.


Make sure to see this gripping descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to witness these unholy truths about existence.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and social posts from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts integrates archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, together with IP aftershocks

Beginning with endurance-driven terror inspired by legendary theology and onward to installment follow-ups as well as focused festival visions, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered in tandem with blueprinted year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. the big studios set cornerstones with known properties, as OTT services crowd the fall with fresh voices paired with mythic dread. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is buoyed by the tailwinds from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside 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. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent led by 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. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend with Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, 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.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

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.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy IP: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
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 extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 terror release year: brand plays, standalone ideas, plus A hectic Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The upcoming scare slate loads from day one with a January traffic jam, from there rolls through summer corridors, and well into the winter holidays, fusing legacy muscle, new voices, and shrewd release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are relying on tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that shape horror entries into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has proven to be the bankable play in studio calendars, a segment that can break out when it connects and still limit the losses when it falls short. After 2023 showed buyers that disciplined-budget fright engines can own mainstream conversation, 2024 kept energy high with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The momentum moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is a lane for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that scale internationally. The takeaway for 2026 is a grid that shows rare alignment across the field, with defined corridors, a balance of household franchises and new concepts, and a reinvigorated eye on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and home streaming.

Marketers add the genre now functions as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can kick off on most weekends, offer a easy sell for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with crowds that appear on advance nights and stay strong through the week two if the entry delivers. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration shows belief in that engine. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January block, then leans on spring and early summer for balance, while carving room for a fall cadence that connects to Halloween and into early November. The grid also includes the tightening integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, spark evangelism, and scale up at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across interlocking continuities and classic IP. The studios are not just rolling another installment. They are trying to present lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a recalibrated tone or a star attachment that links a upcoming film to a classic era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing material texture, special makeup and distinct locales. That mix offers 2026 a smart balance of familiarity and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two front-of-slate projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character study. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a nostalgia-forward framework without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout leaning on legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever rules the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to replay strange in-person beats and brief clips that blurs love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are sold as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward treatment can feel big on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio books two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is selling as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around world-building, and monster design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with 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 distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that elevates both FOMO and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video blends acquired titles with worldwide buys and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival buys, locking in horror entries toward the drop and making event-like launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of precision releases and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with award winners or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is assuring enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps outline the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that honored streaming windows did not preclude a dual release from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and widen scale. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The production chatter behind this year’s genre indicate a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that highlights unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which play well in convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel key. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 headline IP. The month ends with Send Help check over here 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 formidable, but the tone spread lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now can handle 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a early fall window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s digital partner shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 unyielding boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a little one’s uncertain internal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult 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 parody reboot that pokes at today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. 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 spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family linked to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 search for sleepers 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 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, optimized footprints, 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 surface detail, soundscape, and framing 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is name recognition where it counts, auteur intent 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.