Age-old Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

A chilling otherworldly suspense film from storyteller / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an timeless dread when foreigners become proxies in a diabolical experiment. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking story of overcoming and age-old darkness that will alter scare flicks this Halloween season. Directed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and shadowy motion picture follows five strangers who emerge stranded in a far-off dwelling under the dark manipulation of Kyra, a young woman dominated by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Get ready to be enthralled by a audio-visual journey that merges bone-deep fear with timeless legends, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a historical concept in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reimagined when the entities no longer arise externally, but rather within themselves. This suggests the shadowy element of each of them. The result is a gripping identity crisis where the drama becomes a soul-crushing face-off between purity and corruption.


In a haunting wilderness, five souls find themselves contained under the possessive effect and control of a mysterious character. As the youths becomes incapable to fight her manipulation, left alone and stalked by forces unnamable, they are pushed to deal with their deepest fears while the final hour without pause pushes forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease amplifies and relationships dissolve, coercing each member to examine their values and the integrity of liberty itself. The risk mount with every short lapse, delivering a cinematic nightmare that weaves together otherworldly suspense with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to explore primal fear, an evil born of forgotten ages, embedding itself in psychological breaks, and confronting a entity that questions who we are when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra asked for exploring something darker than pain. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that transition is soul-crushing because it is so emotional.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving viewers no matter where they are can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has gathered over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, offering the tale to lovers of terror across nations.


Tune in for this unforgettable descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to witness these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For cast commentary, production news, and alerts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit our film’s homepage.





American horror’s pivotal crossroads: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule Mixes Mythic Possession, Indie Shockers, stacked beside IP aftershocks

Running from survivor-centric dread drawn from legendary theology and stretching into franchise returns alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the most textured and blueprinted year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors plant stakes across the year with known properties, concurrently premium streamers load up the fall with unboxed visions paired with ancient terrors. At the same time, the artisan tier is fueled by the carry of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A fat September–October lane is customary now, but this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig and featuring 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. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: retro dread, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time, the stakes are raised, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, reaching teens and game grownups. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. 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. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

What to Watch

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

Body horror ascends again
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Projection: 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.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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 aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The oncoming Horror release year: returning titles, new stories, plus A busy Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The brand-new terror calendar lines up up front with a January glut, then runs through summer, and deep into the festive period, combining brand equity, novel approaches, and savvy release strategy. Major distributors and platforms are betting on smart costs, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that elevate these films into broad-appeal conversations.

How the genre looks for 2026

This category has established itself as the steady lever in studio lineups, a segment that can scale when it lands and still mitigate the liability when it falls short. After 2023 showed greenlighters that cost-conscious shockers can command the national conversation, 2024 extended the rally with director-led heat and word-of-mouth wins. The run flowed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets signaled there is room for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a grid that is strikingly coherent across distributors, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of legacy names and fresh ideas, and a refocused commitment on theater exclusivity that power the aftermarket on premium rental and platforms.

Distribution heads claim the category now performs as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can kick off on numerous frames, generate a clean hook for teasers and reels, and outpace with viewers that respond on Thursday previews and stick through the second frame if the offering connects. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 pattern shows comfort in that approach. The slate starts with a heavy January stretch, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while carving room for a fall corridor that pushes into Halloween and past the holiday. The arrangement also reflects the increasing integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can platform and widen, create conversation, and roll out at the proper time.

A second macro trend is brand management across shared universes and heritage properties. The studios are not just making another sequel. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a title treatment that suggests a tonal shift or a casting move that anchors a new installment to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing real-world builds, physical gags and place-driven backdrops. That interplay affords 2026 a robust balance of assurance and invention, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount defines the early cadence with two spotlight releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative posture signals a legacy-leaning treatment without covering again the last two entries’ sisters thread. Count on a promo wave built on recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever defines see here the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, sorrow-tinged, and commercial: a grieving man installs an intelligent companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to renew strange in-person beats and short-form creative that mixes devotion and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an event moment closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are set up as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, in-camera leaning aesthetic can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Expect a gore-forward summer horror hit that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio books two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can amplify PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions 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 shaped by textural authenticity and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video will mix library titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using timely promos, horror hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival additions, scheduling horror entries near their drops and staging as events launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 arc with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Be ready for 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 as partners, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Series vs standalone

By volume, the 2026 slate tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap fan equity. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The workable fix is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is foregrounding character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the deal build is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps announce the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and increase ambition. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, permits marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long breaks.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind this year’s genre hint at a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that foregrounds tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which match well with convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in big rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is loaded. Universal’s 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 atmospheric change-up amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down 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 credible, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R 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 the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to 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 sorrowing man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse 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 run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 hard-edged boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with have a peek at these guys auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting story that leverages the horror of a child’s fragile perceptions. Rating: pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-financed and marquee-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 surges, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family anchored to older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in progress. 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 period language and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming landings. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

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

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

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.