Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a pulse pounding chiller, bowing October 2025 across major streaming services

A chilling occult nightmare movie from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an forgotten evil when guests become subjects in a hellish game. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking account of overcoming and forgotten curse that will transform terror storytelling this season. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and cinematic feature follows five individuals who are stirred stuck in a remote hideaway under the dark command of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Arm yourself to be captivated by a narrative experience that merges raw fear with mythic lore, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a legendary foundation in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is radically shifted when the dark entities no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather internally. This marks the shadowy dimension of the protagonists. The result is a intense mind game where the story becomes a merciless confrontation between moral forces.


In a isolated backcountry, five campers find themselves trapped under the malevolent aura and possession of a elusive entity. As the survivors becomes powerless to escape her power, exiled and targeted by spirits beyond comprehension, they are obligated to endure their greatest panics while the countdown without pause moves toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion intensifies and connections dissolve, pushing each participant to rethink their self and the principle of independent thought itself. The stakes grow with every tick, delivering a nightmarish journey that merges otherworldly suspense with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to evoke primitive panic, an force that predates humanity, channeling itself through inner turmoil, and questioning a spirit that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is blind until the control shifts, and that conversion is harrowing because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring watchers everywhere can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, spreading the horror to global fright lovers.


Experience this soul-jarring descent into hell. Stream *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to dive into these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For featurettes, behind-the-scenes content, and updates directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across media channels and visit the movie’s homepage.





Today’s horror inflection point: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar integrates myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, set against brand-name tremors

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror grounded in old testament echoes as well as brand-name continuations and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted plus carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors set cornerstones using marquee IP, while premium streamers stack the fall with new perspectives as well as scriptural shivers. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is fueled by the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures lights the fuse with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside 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 circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director 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.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 an astute call. No bloated mythology. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror returns
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The approaching genre release year: brand plays, filmmaker-first projects, And A jammed Calendar engineered for frights

Dek The brand-new genre season stacks from the jump with a January bottleneck, subsequently extends through midyear, and pushing into the year-end corridor, mixing franchise firepower, inventive spins, and well-timed counter-scheduling. Major distributors and platforms are relying on lean spends, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that turn these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has grown into the sturdy release in studio slates, a segment that can break out when it lands and still limit the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught leaders that lean-budget chillers can shape pop culture, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The carry carried into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets made clear there is capacity for multiple flavors, from returning installments to non-IP projects that export nicely. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a lineup that looks unusually coordinated across the industry, with clear date clusters, a harmony of established brands and original hooks, and a reinvigorated strategy on exclusive windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and SVOD.

Buyers contend the horror lane now acts as a versatile piece on the release plan. Horror can debut on a wide range of weekends, furnish a grabby hook for creative and shorts, and punch above weight with crowds that arrive on preview nights and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the entry connects. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that equation. The year launches with a thick January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a fall cadence that runs into All Hallows period and afterwards. The map also underscores the deeper integration of indie distributors and platforms that can build gradually, build word of mouth, and broaden at the inflection point.

An added macro current is brand management across unified worlds and established properties. Big banners are not just rolling another return. They are trying to present lineage with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that announces a recalibrated tone or a casting pivot that links a fresh chapter to a vintage era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into on-set craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That alloy hands 2026 a confident blend of recognition and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two prominent bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream this contact form 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, presenting it as both a succession moment and a origin-leaning character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance indicates a classic-referencing approach without covering again the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Expect a marketing push leaning on signature symbols, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick shifts to whatever leads pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man purchases an AI companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to bring back strange in-person beats and snackable content that interweaves intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final 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 grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are framed as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a tactile, on-set effects led treatment can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around world-building, and creature work, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on minute detail and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform plans for 2026 run my company on stable tracks. Universal titles land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that optimizes both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using timely promos, holiday hubs, and staff picks to lengthen the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight get redirected here slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchises versus originals

By weight, 2026 leans toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is comforting enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the template. In 2023, a theater-first model that honored streaming windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium 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 unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to thread films through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind these films forecast a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which align with expo activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

January is heavy. 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 atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a early fall window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the power balance tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: marquee survival piece 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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting chiller that routes the horror through a youth’s flickering inner lens. Rating: forthcoming. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-built and marquee-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A genre lampoon that skewers current genre trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a unlucky family linked to ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: forthcoming. 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: TBA. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026, why now

Three execution-level forces define this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated schedules. 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.