Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a nerve shredding feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

One eerie occult horror tale from literary architect / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primeval nightmare when passersby become tokens in a supernatural ritual. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving account of endurance and forgotten curse that will resculpt horror this October. Crafted by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and moody tale follows five unacquainted souls who awaken stranded in a cut-off hideaway under the aggressive influence of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a prehistoric biblical force. Steel yourself to be drawn in by a theatrical venture that weaves together bodily fright with folklore, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a recurring pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the presences no longer descend from beyond, but rather from within. This embodies the most primal dimension of the players. The result is a gripping internal warfare where the emotions becomes a ongoing clash between light and darkness.


In a bleak wild, five adults find themselves cornered under the ghastly presence and control of a shadowy being. As the group becomes incapable to deny her manipulation, disconnected and followed by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are pushed to battle their inner horrors while the seconds ruthlessly winds toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion mounts and teams dissolve, demanding each survivor to scrutinize their true nature and the concept of free will itself. The hazard grow with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that combines mystical fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to dive into basic terror, an darkness rooted in antiquity, feeding on our weaknesses, and challenging a curse that strips down our being when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant channeling something past sanity. She is insensitive until the haunting manifests, and that shift is harrowing because it is so close.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be available for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing audiences worldwide can engage with this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original promo, which has been viewed over six-figure audience.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, making the film to a global viewership.


Witness this cinematic voyage through terror. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to confront these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For previews, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official digital haunt.





American horror’s decisive shift: 2025 for genre fans U.S. rollouts melds legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, alongside brand-name tremors

Ranging from survival horror saturated with scriptural legend and including series comebacks and pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted combined with carefully orchestrated year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, as subscription platforms front-load the fall with emerging auteurs set against archetypal fear. In parallel, festival-forward creators is carried on the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal opens the year with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. 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. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

At summer’s close, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the tone that worked before is intact: retro dread, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 chiller Year Ahead: installments, new stories, together with A jammed Calendar designed for frights

Dek: The incoming terror slate lines up up front with a January traffic jam, then unfolds through June and July, and running into the holiday stretch, braiding IP strength, untold stories, and tactical calendar placement. Studios with streamers are leaning into mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that pivot genre titles into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has emerged as the steady lever in release plans, a category that can scale when it resonates and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured leaders that responsibly budgeted fright engines can lead cultural conversation, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The energy rolled into 2025, where re-entries and awards-minded projects made clear there is space for many shades, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a programming that reads highly synchronized across players, with defined corridors, a combination of marquee IP and new packages, and a recommitted commitment on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and subscription services.

Executives say the category now functions as a swing piece on the programming map. Horror can open on almost any weekend, generate a sharp concept for marketing and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with fans that come out on early shows and hold through the week two if the film works. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 mapping shows certainty in that playbook. The slate commences with a front-loaded January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while making space for a fall corridor that connects to All Hallows period and into early November. The map also shows the increasing integration of indie arms and streaming partners that can build gradually, build word of mouth, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is brand strategy across linked properties and veteran brands. Major shops are not just mounting another sequel. They are working to present threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title treatment that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a lead change that anchors a upcoming film to a initial period. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the most anticipated originals are favoring material texture, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That combination delivers 2026 a smart balance of known notes and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate entries that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative posture telegraphs a throwback-friendly angle without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push anchored in signature symbols, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will chase wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever drives the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to recreate uncanny live moments and snackable content that mixes devotion and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an earned moment closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a More about the author slot he has worked well before. His projects are framed as event films, with a hinting teaser and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to command 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a gritty, physical-effects centered method can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror surge that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio places two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can stoke PLF interest 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 centered on meticulous craft and archaic language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs licensed films with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival additions, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of precision releases and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to move out. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception drives. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using boutique theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By skew, 2026 tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness franchise value. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to pitch each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-tinted vision from a hot helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is anchored enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns help explain the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that respected streaming windows did not stop a parallel release from working when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror punched above its weight in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reorient and expand the canvas. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind the year’s horror point to a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that highlights mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which match well with fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid headline IP. The month closes 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 legit, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a early fall window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s artificial companion grows into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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: 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 hard-edged boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that channels the fear through a little one’s unsteady personal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-built and star-fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that needles current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The have a peek at these guys Further extends again, with a unlucky family anchored to ancient dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three hands-on forces define this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on meme-ready beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where low-to-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, acoustics, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is recognizable IP where it plays, fresh vision where it counts, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.