Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

One terrifying spiritual suspense film from writer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an age-old dread when unfamiliar people become subjects in a dark struggle. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish account of staying alive and forgotten curse that will redefine scare flicks this harvest season. Produced by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody screenplay follows five people who wake up sealed in a secluded house under the ominous rule of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a biblical-era sacrosanct terror. Ready yourself to be gripped by a cinematic outing that merges primitive horror with spiritual backstory, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary tradition in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is flipped when the presences no longer appear from external sources, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the most terrifying element of every character. The result is a edge-of-seat inner struggle where the suspense becomes a brutal confrontation between purity and corruption.


In a barren wild, five teens find themselves contained under the malevolent force and possession of a unidentified being. As the companions becomes vulnerable to escape her rule, isolated and hunted by beings beyond reason, they are required to reckon with their raw vulnerabilities while the deathwatch ruthlessly moves toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion intensifies and links disintegrate, prompting each member to reconsider their essence and the nature of independent thought itself. The stakes grow with every minute, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes supernatural terror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract raw dread, an force older than civilization itself, emerging via our fears, and confronting a power that erodes the self when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra asked for exploring something darker than pain. She is ignorant until the demon emerges, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so visceral.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing fans everywhere can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has received over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, making the film to viewers around the world.


Join this visceral path of possession. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these evil-rooted truths about our species.


For behind-the-scenes access, production news, and promotions via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit the official website.





Horror’s Turning Point: 2025 U.S. Slate melds Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, stacked beside franchise surges

Beginning with survival horror infused with mythic scripture and extending to IP renewals plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the richest together with calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors plant stakes across the year through proven series, while premium streamers load up the fall with debut heat together with mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is carried on the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

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

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. From director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The continuation widens the legend, thickens the animatronic pantheon, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror ascends again
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next scare year to come: Sequels, Originals, in tandem with A jammed Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The current genre slate clusters early with a January bottleneck, and then rolls through summer, and running into the holiday frame, combining brand equity, untold stories, and smart counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are leaning into lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that turn these films into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has become the most reliable swing in distribution calendars, a genre that can surge when it hits and still insulate the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 re-taught decision-makers that responsibly budgeted scare machines can galvanize social chatter, 2024 held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is capacity for many shades, from series extensions to director-led originals that export nicely. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a slate that shows rare alignment across distributors, with planned clusters, a pairing of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a renewed focus on exclusive windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Insiders argue the horror lane now operates like a schedule utility on the calendar. Horror can debut on many corridors, yield a simple premise for previews and reels, and exceed norms with patrons that turn out on advance nights and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the movie delivers. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan telegraphs certainty in that approach. The slate begins with a crowded January block, then exploits spring through early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a late-year stretch that extends to the Halloween corridor and into early November. The program also illustrates the tightening integration of indie distributors and subscription services that can launch in limited release, stoke social talk, and expand at the timely point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just releasing another continuation. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that announces a new tone or a cast configuration that threads a next entry to a original cycle. At the very same time, the writer-directors behind the high-profile originals are favoring hands-on technique, useful reference special makeup and grounded locations. That combination offers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of home base and surprise, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a relay and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a throwback-friendly bent without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign built on brand visuals, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate mainstream recognition through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, loss-driven, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that turns into a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back viral uncanny stunts and snackable content that interweaves attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a name unveil to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. The filmmaker’s films are branded as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy method can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that leans into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in historical precision and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that optimizes both week-one demand and subscriber lifts in the tail. Prime Video balances licensed content with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using featured rows, holiday hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on aggregate take. Netflix plays opportunist about first-party entries and festival buys, slotting horror entries toward the drop and eventizing debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of precision releases and rapid platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with established auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. 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 positioned a cinema-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using precision theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage household recognition. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The preferred tactic is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is emphasizing character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-accented approach from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the assembly is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years outline the logic. In 2023, a exclusive window model that observed windows did not deter a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was trusted. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, enables marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to hold creative in the market without extended gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and craft coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that centers an original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. Universal’s 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 atmospheric change-up amid marquee brands. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Q1 into Q2 tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder season window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited disclosures that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s synthetic partner grows into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie 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 collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: tone-first game 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 demanding boss try to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power reverses and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting setup that manipulates the horror of a child’s mercurial perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: major-studio and star-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 ignites, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core More about the author horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 antique diction and raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, 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 trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundscape, and visual design 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 this contact form fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.