Antediluvian Horror Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across top streamers

An terrifying occult scare-fest from dramatist / director Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primordial terror when passersby become tools in a cursed conflict. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping tale of continuance and primordial malevolence that will resculpt genre cinema this fall. Guided by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive story follows five teens who regain consciousness stranded in a secluded dwelling under the hostile sway of Kyra, a cursed figure haunted by a millennia-old biblical force. Be warned to be immersed by a theatrical outing that blends deep-seated panic with ancestral stories, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a iconic fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is turned on its head when the demons no longer manifest externally, but rather through their own souls. This symbolizes the most hidden version of the group. The result is a relentless spiritual tug-of-war where the emotions becomes a perpetual clash between righteousness and malevolence.


In a desolate terrain, five figures find themselves sealed under the malicious aura and inhabitation of a unidentified entity. As the ensemble becomes powerless to resist her grasp, exiled and pursued by unknowns indescribable, they are cornered to stand before their soulful dreads while the time unceasingly ticks toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion swells and connections break, demanding each member to question their existence and the structure of personal agency itself. The consequences mount with every minute, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that combines demonic fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to awaken elemental fright, an presence that predates humanity, emerging via our fears, and challenging a presence that strips down our being when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that flip is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing households worldwide can enjoy this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has pulled in over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, giving access to the movie to global fright lovers.


Experience this haunted descent into darkness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these ghostly lessons about inner darkness.


For featurettes, special features, and updates directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit our horror hub.





U.S. horror’s sea change: 2025 U.S. Slate melds myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside franchise surges

Beginning with pressure-cooker survival tales rooted in primordial scripture and including IP renewals plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered and tactically planned year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors set cornerstones through proven series, at the same time streaming platforms pack the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with primordial unease. On the independent axis, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is surfing the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner opens the year with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Booked into mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

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 Underneath: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market 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. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next genre season: installments, fresh concepts, paired with A brimming Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The current horror season stacks at the outset with a January logjam, subsequently carries through June and July, and well into the holiday stretch, braiding marquee clout, creative pitches, and data-minded release strategy. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the sturdy move in annual schedules, a space that can break out when it connects and still limit the liability when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reminded strategy teams that cost-conscious genre plays can galvanize social chatter, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The energy extended into 2025, where revived properties and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is a market for several lanes, from series extensions to original features that travel well. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a run that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of known properties and untested plays, and a sharpened stance on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and home streaming.

Executives say the category now behaves like a flex slot on the programming map. Horror can open on many corridors, supply a clear pitch for trailers and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with viewers that show up on Thursday previews and stick through the second frame if the offering satisfies. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm reflects comfort in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a thick January band, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a autumn push that stretches into All Hallows period and beyond. The grid also spotlights the stronger partnership of arthouse labels and streaming partners that can develop over weeks, fuel WOM, and expand at the timely point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across shared universes and long-running brands. Distribution groups are not just mounting another return. They are setting up lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a new vibe or a star attachment that binds a next entry to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That blend offers the 2026 slate a strong blend of familiarity and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece bets that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a fan-service aware framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign fueled by signature symbols, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three unique lanes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an intelligent companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and snackable content that interweaves romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while Source larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are sold as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to saturate 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a visceral, practical-effects forward mix can feel prestige on a lean spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is framing as a new foundation 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 charge to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that fortifies both FOMO and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video will mix licensed content with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to this page maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival snaps, confirming horror entries closer to drop and turning into events drops with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 sequence with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, upgraded for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to move out. That positioning has delivered for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years clarify the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a parallel release from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, enables marketing to relate entries through character spine and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers tone and tension rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster realization and design, which match well with fan-con activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that center hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is heavy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a opaque tease strategy and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

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: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s synthetic partner mutates into something perilously amorous. 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss try to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

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 from-today rework that returns the monster to terror, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 household haunting narrative that routes the horror through a young child’s uneven perspective. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

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 satirical comeback that targets current genre trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a fresh family bound to returning horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: pending. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, providing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 dark-horse hunt 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to horror warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and camera work 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 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.