Primordial Dread Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding thriller, arriving October 2025 across top streaming platforms

This chilling ghostly fear-driven tale from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primeval malevolence when unfamiliar people become victims in a dark struggle. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving episode of resistance and old world terror that will reshape the fear genre this scare season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and immersive motion picture follows five people who are stirred imprisoned in a isolated wooden structure under the menacing manipulation of Kyra, a female lead controlled by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Prepare to be absorbed by a big screen ride that merges bodily fright with legendary tales, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a mainstay element in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reimagined when the malevolences no longer appear externally, but rather from within. This depicts the malevolent part of the cast. The result is a gripping emotional conflict where the narrative becomes a relentless struggle between heaven and hell.


In a wilderness-stricken wilderness, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the evil control and possession of a secretive woman. As the youths becomes unresisting to deny her grasp, cut off and pursued by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are made to reckon with their inner horrors while the countdown mercilessly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia surges and connections fracture, urging each cast member to contemplate their values and the philosophy of self-determination itself. The pressure escalate with every second, delivering a terror ride that combines paranormal dread with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into core terror, an presence from ancient eras, filtering through inner turmoil, and exposing a curse that dismantles free will when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra needed manifesting something outside normal anguish. She is clueless until the evil takes hold, and that transition is haunting because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing subscribers across the world can be part of this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has garnered over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, exporting the fear to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring trip into the unknown. Enter *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to uncover these haunting secrets about the human condition.


For sneak peeks, production insights, and news from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit the film’s website.





Today’s horror Turning Point: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate braids together legend-infused possession, independent shockers, together with returning-series thunder

Running from last-stand terror infused with primordial scripture to legacy revivals alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified plus tactically planned year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, simultaneously platform operators flood the fall with discovery plays in concert with ancient terrors. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is fueled by the echoes of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, so 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal sets the tone with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in an immediate now. Steered by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The follow up digs further into canon, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror duet fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No heavy handed lore. No legacy baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. 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. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Season Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The approaching terror cycle: installments, filmmaker-first projects, plus A loaded Calendar optimized for chills

Dek: The incoming horror slate stacks up front with a January traffic jam, after that unfolds through the mid-year, and continuing into the holiday frame, weaving brand equity, novel approaches, and data-minded offsets. Studios and streamers are committing to mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that shape genre titles into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has become the most reliable release in release strategies, a vertical that can spike when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that cost-conscious shockers can galvanize social chatter, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries showed there is a lane for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The result for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across the field, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of familiar brands and new pitches, and a re-energized attention on release windows that fuel later windows on PVOD and home platforms.

Planners observe the genre now operates like a wildcard on the schedule. The genre can launch on a wide range of weekends, create a quick sell for previews and reels, and exceed norms with ticket buyers that appear on Thursday nights and hold through the week two if the film works. Emerging from a work stoppage lag, the 2026 cadence telegraphs assurance in that playbook. The slate commences with a weighty January block, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while holding room for a autumn stretch that stretches into the fright window and into the next week. The schedule also spotlights the tightening integration of specialized labels and streamers that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and expand at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across shared universes and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just pushing another installment. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a new vibe or a lead change that connects a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are leaning into material texture, physical gags and concrete locations. That blend produces 2026 a vital pairing of known notes and surprise, which is how the films export.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character study. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a classic-referencing bent without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Expect a marketing push driven by classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick turns to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an machine companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo strange in-person beats and brief clips that blurs affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed 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 leaves room for a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s releases are marketed as filmmaker events, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to command 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has consistently shown that a visceral, physical-effects centered treatment can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror rush that maximizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio lines up two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is marketing 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 explicit mandate to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on historical precision and dialect, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a cadence that fortifies both FOMO and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines licensed films with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in back-catalog play, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival additions, finalizing horror entries near their drops and framing as events drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to widen. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception encourages. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using small theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap fan equity. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The practical approach is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is underscoring character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps help explain the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that preserved streaming windows did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, creates space for marketing to thread films through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta reframe that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in fan-con activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. 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 brooding contrast amid heavier IP. 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 serious, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 offers no-compromise intensity. The useful reference counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion grows into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 scramble to survive on a rugged island as the control balance upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s practical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that threads the dread through a child’s volatile point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-crafted and name-above-title paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. 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 flares, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a unlucky family entangled with ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on pure survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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

Why 2026, why now

Three execution-level forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The surprise-hit pursuit 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, 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 refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is IP strength where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.