Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A terrifying mystic terror film from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an age-old terror when guests become conduits in a satanic ritual. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful story of staying alive and forgotten curse that will remodel fear-driven cinema this cool-weather season. Directed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick film follows five young adults who snap to isolated in a unreachable hideaway under the aggressive will of Kyra, a central character controlled by a ancient sacred-era entity. Get ready to be captivated by a screen-based experience that intertwines bodily fright with timeless legends, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a time-honored theme in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is flipped when the forces no longer originate from an outside force, but rather from their core. This suggests the deepest aspect of the cast. The result is a psychologically brutal emotional conflict where the drama becomes a brutal conflict between virtue and vice.


In a abandoned backcountry, five youths find themselves sealed under the sinister force and infestation of a uncanny entity. As the team becomes helpless to withstand her rule, detached and hunted by presences indescribable, they are required to encounter their inner horrors while the deathwatch coldly edges forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and ties implode, compelling each soul to contemplate their personhood and the principle of volition itself. The danger mount with every second, delivering a paranormal ride that intertwines supernatural terror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to dive into core terror, an presence born of forgotten ages, working through soul-level flaws, and challenging a evil that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra required summoning something unfamiliar to reason. She is oblivious until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is eerie because it is so internal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for digital release beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure users worldwide can watch this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has received over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, making the film to a global viewership.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling fall into madness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to acknowledge these unholy truths about free will.


For featurettes, on-set glimpses, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across fan hubs and visit our horror hub.





American horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 domestic schedule melds biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, set against IP aftershocks

Kicking off with life-or-death fear saturated with legendary theology to franchise returns in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned plus strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, as platform operators flood the fall with discovery plays and legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is buoyed by the kinetic energy of a peak 2024 circuit. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, and eerie supernatural logic. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It hits in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

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, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, 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.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning 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 returns
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall stack and winter swing card

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The forthcoming 2026 chiller calendar year ahead: entries, new stories, and also A busy Calendar engineered for chills

Dek The incoming genre year packs from the jump with a January crush, after that rolls through the summer months, and continuing into the winter holidays, fusing marquee clout, original angles, and data-minded counterplay. Studios with streamers are embracing mid-range economics, box-office-first windows, and influencer-ready assets that elevate horror entries into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The genre has solidified as the consistent move in release strategies, a vertical that can break out when it lands and still buffer the losses when it does not. After the 2023 year signaled to decision-makers that disciplined-budget horror vehicles can dominate social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with buzzy auteur projects and quiet over-performers. The momentum moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and critical darlings proved there is a market for varied styles, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The net effect for 2026 is a calendar that appears tightly organized across the market, with defined corridors, a pairing of established brands and first-time concepts, and a renewed focus on big-screen windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Insiders argue the genre now acts as a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can premiere on open real estate, create a easy sell for creative and TikTok spots, and lead with fans that line up on advance nights and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the release fires. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping shows faith in that dynamic. The year launches with a heavy January window, then leans on spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that stretches into Halloween and into post-Halloween. The program also underscores the tightening integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can platform a title, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the right moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across ongoing universes and classic IP. Distribution groups are not just releasing another chapter. They are trying to present lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that telegraphs a new vibe or a casting move that bridges a new installment to a early run. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the top original plays are favoring tactile craft, makeup and prosthetics and place-driven backdrops. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a vital pairing of home base and invention, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a memory-charged approach without going over the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive general-audience talk through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an artificial companion that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date slots it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to revisit viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that interlaces devotion and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele titles are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, physical-effects centered execution can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror surge that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is billing 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 diehards and casuals. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around narrative world, and practical creature work, elements that can drive large-format demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival wins, securing horror entries on shorter runways and elevating as drops launches with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. 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+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to widen. That positioning has served the company well for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By skew, the 2026 slate skews toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a Francophone tone from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is familiar enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns frame the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that honored streaming windows did not preclude a parallel release from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to bridge entries through personae and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

How the look and feel evolve

The production chatter behind 2026 horror forecast a continued tilt toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. 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 hosts 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder season window that still preps for Halloween Young & Cursed marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s physical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting story that toys with the fright of a child’s tricky perceptions. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-scale and star-led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody reboot that riffs on today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: have a peek here undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 historical diction and elemental fear. Rating: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter 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 beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first 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. 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday useful reference lifts, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.