Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across leading streamers

A frightening unearthly thriller from literary architect / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an archaic horror when drifters become tools in a demonic struggle. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of living through and timeless dread that will resculpt scare flicks this harvest season. Produced by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and emotionally thick feature follows five strangers who snap to ensnared in a far-off shack under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a tormented girl occupied by a biblical-era Old Testament spirit. Be warned to be hooked by a audio-visual experience that blends raw fear with biblical origins, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a recurring fixture in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the dark entities no longer originate from beyond, but rather from their psyche. This marks the haunting layer of the players. The result is a gripping psychological battle where the tension becomes a perpetual confrontation between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak natural abyss, five adults find themselves contained under the ghastly sway and spiritual invasion of a uncanny apparition. As the victims becomes unresisting to escape her power, detached and chased by unknowns mind-shattering, they are thrust to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the timeline without pity draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and bonds fracture, requiring each protagonist to evaluate their personhood and the integrity of decision-making itself. The pressure intensify with every beat, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges otherworldly panic with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to awaken instinctual horror, an entity beyond time, feeding on emotional fractures, and testing a will that dismantles free will when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the invasion happens, and that change is gut-wrenching because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households worldwide can dive into this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, offering the tale to scare fans abroad.


Witness this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Enter *Young & Cursed* this launch day to witness these evil-rooted truths about existence.


For behind-the-scenes access, filmmaker commentary, and news from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar integrates old-world possession, art-house nightmares, set against IP aftershocks

Running from life-or-death fear infused with old testament echoes as well as franchise returns and surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the richest plus strategic year since the mid-2010s.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Top studios are anchoring the year with known properties, simultaneously streamers crowd the fall with new perspectives alongside ancestral chills. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal camp opens the year with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

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

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

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

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose 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 all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming chiller slate: installments, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar aimed at chills

Dek The emerging terror year crowds right away with a January wave, subsequently stretches through the warm months, and deep into the holiday stretch, balancing franchise firepower, untold stories, and shrewd calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that convert the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has emerged as the bankable option in release strategies, a pillar that can scale when it connects and still insulate the downside when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year signaled to buyers that modestly budgeted scare machines can galvanize mainstream conversation, the following year carried the beat with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where reboots and elevated films proved there is a lane for several lanes, from series extensions to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a programming that is strikingly coherent across studios, with strategic blocks, a mix of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated strategy on cinema windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and subscription services.

Planners observe the space now functions as a swing piece on the slate. Horror can debut on many corridors, create a sharp concept for promo reels and TikTok spots, and outpace with fans that respond on Thursday previews and sustain through the week two if the feature connects. Coming out of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration signals belief in that setup. The calendar starts with a weighty January stretch, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall corridor that carries into the fright window and afterwards. The layout also includes the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and streaming partners that can grow from platform, generate chatter, and scale up at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and established properties. The companies are not just releasing another chapter. They are working to present story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that announces a refreshed voice or a talent selection that links a new entry to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are returning to hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That pairing delivers 2026 a healthy mix of familiarity and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate releases that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a succession moment and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach hints at a throwback-friendly approach without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on brand visuals, character-first teases, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever dominates genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tight, tragic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man purchases an digital partner that unfolds into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to recreate creepy live activations and short reels that threads attachment and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an headline beat closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele projects are framed as director events, with a hinting teaser and a second trailer wave that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-effects forward treatment can feel elevated on a lean spend. Look for a hard-R summer horror rush that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending news a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is describing 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 focus to serve both players and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around world-building, and creature work, elements that can fuel IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by rigorous craft and language, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a pacing that fortifies both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival additions, finalizing horror entries near their drops and staging as events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. 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 title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to acquire select projects with established auteurs or star packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 arc with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with broader reach. 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 likely scenario is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception warrants. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using boutique theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is staleness. The go-to fix is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the packaging is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, creates space for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster realization and design, which work nicely for con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

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

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a mutable 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 hard-edged boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the control dynamic turns and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s material craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that twists the fright of a child’s wobbly read. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-financed and marquee-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes modern genre fads and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBD. 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 detonates, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan bound to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBD. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and leaner 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on repeatable beats from test screenings, precision scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.