Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

A spine-tingling ghostly terror film from creator / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an timeless dread when drifters become tools in a supernatural ordeal. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving chronicle of struggle and age-old darkness that will transform scare flicks this Halloween season. Crafted by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and tone-heavy motion picture follows five lost souls who wake up ensnared in a unreachable shelter under the dark dominion of Kyra, a female presence claimed by a legendary religious nightmare. Anticipate to be gripped by a cinematic journey that melds intense horror with timeless legends, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a historical element in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is challenged when the fiends no longer arise externally, but rather from their psyche. This portrays the deepest element of all involved. The result is a psychologically brutal internal warfare where the conflict becomes a ongoing conflict between moral forces.


In a forsaken forest, five adults find themselves caught under the dark effect and infestation of a haunted character. As the protagonists becomes helpless to evade her power, detached and pursued by entities unnamable, they are required to battle their core terrors while the final hour unforgivingly counts down toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and partnerships implode, driving each survivor to reconsider their character and the integrity of self-determination itself. The cost accelerate with every second, delivering a chilling narrative that connects unearthly horror with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to explore basic terror, an evil rooted in antiquity, manifesting in human fragility, and confronting a power that redefines identity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra demanded embodying something beneath mortal despair. She is innocent until the possession kicks in, and that metamorphosis is soul-crushing because it is so private.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving users no matter where they are can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has received over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, bringing the film to scare fans abroad.


Join this gripping spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to see these nightmarish insights about our species.


For sneak peeks, special features, and updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the official digital haunt.





Contemporary horror’s tipping point: the year 2025 domestic schedule integrates primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, plus IP aftershocks

Beginning with survival horror suffused with near-Eastern lore and extending to IP renewals set beside incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as the most textured plus deliberate year in a decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners stabilize the year with established lines, at the same time subscription platforms front-load the fall with emerging auteurs paired with archetypal fear. On the festival side, the art-house flank is buoyed by the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are methodical, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a statement play: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. timed for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement 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. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson again directs, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky 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 likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

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

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. 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 approaching scare cycle: Sequels, standalone ideas, in tandem with A stacked Calendar engineered for chills

Dek: The emerging scare slate clusters right away with a January pile-up, after that flows through the summer months, and continuing into the holidays, marrying legacy muscle, creative pitches, and smart counter-scheduling. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that shape these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has become the predictable move in studio calendars, a category that can grow when it catches and still hedge the drawdown when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught executives that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize pop culture, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers made clear there is room for several lanes, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a mix of familiar brands and original hooks, and a recommitted emphasis on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the space now works like a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can bow on almost any weekend, create a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and overperform with demo groups that line up on preview nights and continue through the second frame if the entry delivers. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan shows assurance in that logic. The slate opens with a stacked January band, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween corridor and beyond. The schedule also reflects the tightening integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the precise moment.

A companion trend is brand curation across unified worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just rolling another chapter. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that bridges a new entry to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are embracing on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That mix produces 2026 a solid mix of familiarity and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two prominent moves that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the heart, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a throwback-friendly framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout driven by recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Young & Cursed Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a counterweight in summer, this one will generate four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back eerie street stunts and short-form creative that interweaves love and dread.

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

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele projects are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a gritty, on-set effects led aesthetic can feel premium on a lean spend. Position this as a hard-R summer horror charge that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can lift premium format interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors 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 characterized by meticulous craft and period language, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre entries window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a sequence that optimizes both launch urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video combines library titles with global pickups and small theatrical windows when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library curation, using curated hubs, October hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival deals, confirming horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of precision releases and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: 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 healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive window model that observed windows did not deter a hybrid test from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they shift POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to relate entries through character spine and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind the year’s horror signal a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights creep and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which align with fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes 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 serious, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy resurrects 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 spreads the field. 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 tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner escalates into something perilously amorous. 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 organizes 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 check over here materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the power dynamic upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. 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 closed-door haunting piece that toys with the chill of a child’s uncertain read. Rating: TBD. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

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 lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing 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 yawns again, with a new family anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: TBD. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and primordial menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026, why now

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and pared-down timelines. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers 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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, disciplined 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 visual texture, sound field, and cinematography 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, click site the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.