Age-old Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

An frightening spiritual fear-driven tale from writer / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an mythic malevolence when newcomers become victims in a malevolent contest. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing chronicle of living through and archaic horror that will resculpt fear-driven cinema this fall. Realized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and gothic tale follows five unknowns who find themselves stuck in a secluded shack under the menacing control of Kyra, a possessed female haunted by a ancient religious nightmare. Be prepared to be shaken by a audio-visual display that unites gut-punch terror with spiritual backstory, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is subverted when the malevolences no longer manifest outside their bodies, but rather from their psyche. This depicts the darkest aspect of the protagonists. The result is a bone-chilling mental war where the emotions becomes a perpetual fight between divinity and wickedness.


In a wilderness-stricken backcountry, five individuals find themselves contained under the malicious grip and infestation of a enigmatic person. As the victims becomes incapacitated to reject her curse, isolated and pursued by creatures ungraspable, they are compelled to deal with their worst nightmares while the countdown ruthlessly ticks onward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread rises and ties shatter, pushing each survivor to rethink their personhood and the foundation of free will itself. The pressure rise with every short lapse, delivering a terror ride that fuses ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to awaken ancestral fear, an threat from prehistory, filtering through psychological breaks, and questioning a curse that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra demanded embodying something unfamiliar to reason. She is blind until the control shifts, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so close.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing audiences from coast to coast can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has gathered over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to a global viewership.


Be sure to catch this unforgettable path of possession. Stream *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to explore these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For previews, behind-the-scenes content, and alerts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across Facebook and TikTok and visit our spooky domain.





Contemporary horror’s decisive shift: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate braids together biblical-possession ideas, microbudget gut-punches, paired with brand-name tremors

Spanning survivor-centric dread drawn from primordial scripture as well as canon extensions paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with strategic year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors set cornerstones with familiar IP, in tandem SVOD players prime the fall with unboxed visions paired with legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is fueled by the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are assertive. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal starts the year with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer fades, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: 70s style chill, trauma driven plotting, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overstuffed canon. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming terror release year: continuations, Originals, paired with A hectic Calendar tailored for chills

Dek The incoming terror season crams immediately with a January bottleneck, thereafter extends through the summer months, and carrying into the holiday stretch, combining marquee clout, original angles, and data-minded release strategy. Major distributors and platforms are focusing on smart costs, theater-first strategies, and social-driven marketing that transform horror entries into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the steady option in programming grids, a genre that can expand when it lands and still buffer the drag when it fails to connect. After 2023 signaled to top brass that low-to-mid budget entries can drive the discourse, the following year maintained heat with visionary-driven titles and sleeper breakouts. The upswing carried into 2025, where revivals and awards-minded projects showed there is space for many shades, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that travel well. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a calendar that looks unusually coordinated across the industry, with planned clusters, a balance of familiar brands and new packages, and a renewed emphasis on box-office windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and subscription services.

Distribution heads claim the category now behaves like a wildcard on the programming map. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, provide a clear pitch for creative and platform-native cuts, and outstrip with fans that come out on opening previews and stick through the week two if the movie lands. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 plan telegraphs trust in that logic. The year gets underway with a weighty January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for balance, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that carries into All Hallows period and past the holiday. The arrangement also illustrates the deeper integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can develop over weeks, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is IP stewardship across shared universes and legacy IP. Studios are not just making another follow-up. They are working to present story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that indicates a recalibrated tone or a star attachment that binds a next film to a heyday. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are returning to hands-on technique, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a robust balance of trust and newness, which is what works overseas.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount leads early with two high-profile pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the authorial approach signals a nostalgia-forward strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout leaning on heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off 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 headline the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick updates to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, soulful, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that grows into a fatal companion. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to reprise eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that threads love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a official title to become an headline beat closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning style can feel elevated on a tight budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror hit that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that fortifies both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on the 2026 genre total. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival buys, locking in horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before news the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 runway with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Series vs standalone

By volume, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps illuminate the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a day-date move from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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, enables marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

Production craft signals

The director conversations behind these films foreshadow a continued lean toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion becomes something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 returns 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: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss work to survive on a lonely island as the chain of command tilts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting tale that pipes the unease through a little one’s uncertain subjective lens. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and marquee-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 flares, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a unlucky family caught in lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the moment is 2026

Three hands-on forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable 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 works.

Calendar math also matters. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.