Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across top streaming platforms

A terrifying spectral horror tale from writer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an timeless horror when foreigners become conduits in a hellish struggle. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of struggle and forgotten curse that will revamp horror this season. Helmed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and moody feature follows five figures who suddenly rise trapped in a hidden structure under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a antiquated ancient fiend. Be prepared to be gripped by a theatrical adventure that combines soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical narrative in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is redefined when the dark entities no longer appear outside the characters, but rather from deep inside. This depicts the most hidden side of the cast. The result is a riveting psychological battle where the conflict becomes a constant battle between right and wrong.


In a barren no-man's-land, five friends find themselves imprisoned under the ominous influence and possession of a elusive person. As the cast becomes incapable to deny her power, left alone and hunted by forces mind-shattering, they are required to reckon with their worst nightmares while the final hour coldly ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear builds and bonds shatter, urging each character to reconsider their essence and the idea of liberty itself. The cost grow with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that connects paranormal dread with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to draw upon instinctual horror, an threat rooted in antiquity, working through human fragility, and questioning a will that dismantles free will when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is shocking because it is so personal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing viewers worldwide can watch this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has attracted over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to a global viewership.


Join this heart-stopping voyage through terror. Experience *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to see these evil-rooted truths about the human condition.


For teasers, production news, and reveals via the production team, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official website.





Current horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate weaves myth-forward possession, Indie Shockers, plus series shake-ups

From survival horror infused with mythic scripture as well as canon extensions paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered and blueprinted year in years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, in tandem digital services flood the fall with new perspectives plus ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is riding the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed by 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

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

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 spook cycle: continuations, original films, together with A Crowded Calendar geared toward nightmares

Dek The emerging genre season builds up front with a January bottleneck, then unfolds through the warm months, and continuing into the late-year period, marrying legacy muscle, untold stories, and tactical counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are focusing on lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that shape these releases into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror sector has proven to be the consistent swing in programming grids, a corner that can accelerate when it hits and still mitigate the exposure when it fails to connect. After 2023 reconfirmed for executives that efficiently budgeted shockers can dominate audience talk, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The trend rolled into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers proved there is appetite for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The takeaway for 2026 is a grid that appears tightly organized across the market, with purposeful groupings, a balance of legacy names and new pitches, and a reinvigorated eye on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and digital services.

Marketers add the category now operates like a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can open on almost any weekend, generate a easy sell for teasers and social clips, and over-index with viewers that respond on Thursday previews and sustain through the sophomore frame if the title delivers. Post a production delay era, the 2026 plan signals faith in that dynamic. The year opens with a weighty January stretch, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a late-year stretch that runs into All Hallows period and past Halloween. The arrangement also illustrates the increasing integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just turning out another next film. They are seeking to position lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that announces a re-angled tone or a star attachment that bridges a latest entry to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a strong blend of familiarity and freshness, which is why the genre exports well.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount establishes early momentum with two marquee releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, presenting it as both a relay and a heritage-centered character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a nostalgia-forward mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with franchise iconography, early character teases, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will chase mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tight, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror odd public stunts and bite-size content that interlaces intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted Source as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are presented as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that signal tone without plot the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a visceral, practical-effects forward style can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio places two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has reshuffled 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 returns in what Sony is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can drive large-format demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in careful craft and textual fidelity, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival deals, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events arrivals with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline 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 simple: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, refined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror 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 commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Recent comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not deter a parallel release from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they angle differently and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without pause points.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind these films signal a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to con floor moments and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited teasers that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 prickly boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the pecking order inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that interrogates the horror of a child’s mercurial impressions. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: major-studio and name-above-title spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that lampoons modern genre fads and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled 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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: continuing. 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-specific language and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, 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 dimensionality, acoustics, and visuals 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 reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.