Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising chiller, streaming Oct 2025 across major streaming services

One blood-curdling spectral suspense film from creator / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an archaic dread when unfamiliar people become proxies in a diabolical experiment. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish chronicle of resistance and primeval wickedness that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Directed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five characters who arise stuck in a wooded house under the oppressive control of Kyra, a mysterious girl consumed by a prehistoric sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be hooked by a audio-visual journey that unites bodily fright with folklore, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring concept in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is challenged when the entities no longer emerge from external sources, but rather from their core. This marks the most sinister layer of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat internal warfare where the tension becomes a intense battle between purity and corruption.


In a barren wild, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the sinister presence and overtake of a elusive figure. As the characters becomes unresisting to reject her influence, isolated and stalked by terrors impossible to understand, they are required to reckon with their deepest fears while the time brutally edges forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion swells and relationships splinter, coercing each person to evaluate their essence and the structure of self-determination itself. The consequences amplify with every minute, delivering a fear-soaked story that weaves together unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to uncover ancestral fear, an presence that predates humanity, manifesting in mental cracks, and exposing a force that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was about accessing something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is soul-crushing because it is so deep.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure households anywhere can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original clip, which has received over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Don’t miss this cinematic descent into hell. Enter *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to uncover these spiritual awakenings about mankind.


For sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and alerts from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate weaves old-world possession, microbudget gut-punches, paired with IP aftershocks

Ranging from survival horror saturated with mythic scripture and onward to legacy revivals together with surgical indie voices, 2025 stands to become the richest and calculated campaign year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors hold down the year through proven series, at the same time premium streamers load up the fall with unboxed visions alongside ancient terrors. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, distinctly in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are precise, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: 70s style chill, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No continuity burden. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. 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 premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror ascends again
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
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. 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 some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming spook slate: continuations, Originals, as well as A stacked Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The fresh genre calendar loads from day one with a January logjam, thereafter stretches through June and July, and pushing into the year-end corridor, combining name recognition, creative pitches, and savvy release strategy. Studios and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that position these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has emerged as the bankable move in programming grids, a pillar that can grow when it connects and still insulate the exposure when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reminded leaders that lean-budget horror vehicles can own cultural conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and surprise hits. The head of steam carried into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and critical darlings demonstrated there is room for varied styles, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that resonate abroad. The net effect for 2026 is a programming that presents tight coordination across distributors, with planned clusters, a mix of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a renewed attention on box-office windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and home streaming.

Executives say the space now acts as a versatile piece on the schedule. The genre can open on nearly any frame, yield a clean hook for ad units and shorts, and outperform with ticket buyers that line up on early shows and stick through the subsequent weekend if the picture connects. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup telegraphs certainty in that model. The slate gets underway with a busy January block, then exploits spring through early summer for genre counterpoints, while keeping space for a fall run that pushes into late October and into November. The calendar also shows the greater integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can build gradually, create conversation, and go nationwide at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across interlocking continuities and established properties. Major shops are not just making another return. They are looking to package lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a new vibe or a casting pivot that binds a new entry to a original cycle. At the in tandem, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing practical craft, practical gags and specific settings. That mix affords the 2026 slate a smart balance of familiarity and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two high-profile pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a heritage-honoring approach without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run driven by heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will feature. As a counterweight in summer, this one will chase wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick switches to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tidy, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that becomes a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back odd public stunts and short reels that melds romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a official title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His entries are marketed as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The prime October weekend offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a gritty, makeup-driven strategy can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror rush that spotlights international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is marketing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around narrative world, and monster design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets 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 driven by obsessive craft and archaic language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s releases shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a structure that amplifies both FOMO and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with cross-border buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries near launch and elevating as drops debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to secure select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, refined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has helped for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception supports. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, the 2026 slate favors the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is brand wear. The operating solution is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-flavored turn from a new voice. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Three-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not obstruct a day-date try from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to keep assets alive without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued move toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in trade spotlights and department features before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which favor convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. 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 larger brand plays. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tonal variety makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect 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 run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s digital partner evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: gothic-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 unyielding boss struggle to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic inverts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, rooted in Cronin’s hands-on craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. 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 intimate haunting narrative that frames the panic through a youngster’s unreliable inner lens. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satire sequel that riffs on current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. my review here Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan linked to ancient dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: underway. 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-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces frame this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, 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 texture, audio 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.