Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked shocker, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This unnerving unearthly shockfest from literary architect / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an timeless force when passersby become vehicles in a fiendish ritual. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of living through and timeless dread that will reimagine the horror genre this October. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and atmospheric motion picture follows five strangers who regain consciousness isolated in a hidden cottage under the ominous will of Kyra, a mysterious girl possessed by a antiquated biblical force. Ready yourself to be absorbed by a immersive journey that intertwines raw fear with legendary tales, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a legendary narrative in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is turned on its head when the malevolences no longer form from beyond, but rather from their core. This echoes the grimmest shade of the players. The result is a riveting mind game where the intensity becomes a soul-crushing battle between light and darkness.


In a wilderness-stricken woodland, five young people find themselves confined under the sinister rule and inhabitation of a elusive female figure. As the team becomes paralyzed to resist her command, severed and pursued by powers beyond comprehension, they are required to reckon with their deepest fears while the deathwatch unforgivingly draws closer toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion rises and ties shatter, coercing each person to contemplate their core and the structure of volition itself. The hazard rise with every second, delivering a nightmarish journey that integrates ghostly evil with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to explore elemental fright, an presence before modern man, emerging via human fragility, and challenging a curse that tests the soul when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something deeper than fear. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that evolution is harrowing because it is so private.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be available for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing streamers anywhere can enjoy this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has gathered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, offering the tale to international horror buffs.


Tune in for this unforgettable journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to uncover these ghostly lessons about free will.


For featurettes, on-set glimpses, and social posts from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts Mixes ancient-possession motifs, microbudget gut-punches, set against tentpole growls

From last-stand terror rooted in old testament echoes and onward to IP renewals as well as focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned in tandem with blueprinted year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios lay down anchors using marquee IP, in parallel streaming platforms front-load the fall with debut heat alongside old-world menace. At the same time, the artisan tier is surfing the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are methodical, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule fires the first shot with a big gambit: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Economy, maximum dread

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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 is a clever angle. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

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

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, 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 film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, under 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.

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

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror resurges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new fear release year: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, as well as A stacked Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek: The brand-new scare slate packs from the jump with a January glut, subsequently spreads through the summer months, and pushing into the year-end corridor, blending name recognition, fresh ideas, and strategic release strategy. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that convert genre releases into national conversation.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror has become the predictable release in studio slates, a corner that can lift when it clicks and still mitigate the drawdown when it does not. After 2023 reconfirmed for top brass that cost-conscious scare machines can steer mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and surprise hits. The head of steam pushed into 2025, where reawakened brands and prestige plays showed there is capacity for diverse approaches, from returning installments to one-and-done originals that travel well. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the market, with planned clusters, a equilibrium of household franchises and untested plays, and a reinvigorated emphasis on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on PVOD and home platforms.

Buyers contend the category now operates like a utility player on the release plan. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, create a clear pitch for creative and TikTok spots, and exceed norms with audiences that line up on first-look nights and return through the next pass if the movie lands. In the wake of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup signals assurance in that engine. The calendar commences with a loaded January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for counterweight, while holding room for a October build that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The arrangement also reflects the deeper integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and broaden at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and heritage properties. Big banners are not just mounting another next film. They are looking to package story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that signals a reframed mood or a casting choice that ties a upcoming film to a heyday. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the top original plays are returning to in-camera technique, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That interplay hands 2026 a lively combination of home base and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two prominent plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a fan-service aware treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push fueled by legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick turns to whatever dominates genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, somber, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that turns into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay uncanny live moments and micro spots that interweaves devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are presented as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a visceral, on-set effects led method can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a hard-R summer horror jolt that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature effects, elements that can boost large-format demand and fandom activation.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already set the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a structure that optimizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video will mix acquired titles with global pickups and brief theater runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and collection rows to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries tight to release and coalescing around rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a discrete basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence 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 sell is clear: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated 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 positioned a theatrical-first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, 2026 skews toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set contextualize the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that honored streaming windows did not block a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to thread films through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind this year’s genre indicate a continued move toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which lend themselves to booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the palette of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a bridge slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that favor idea over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: tone-first 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 difficult boss scramble to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fear, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting setup that interrogates the fear of a child’s uncertain perceptions. Rating: to be announced. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that lampoons today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up have a peek at these guys reset designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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 cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. 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 chilly, 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 compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, 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 tactility, aural design, and image-making 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is name recognition where it counts, original 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.