Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a hair raising horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

A chilling spectral thriller from author / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten malevolence when guests become vehicles in a malevolent conflict. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing account of endurance and forgotten curse that will reimagine genre cinema this October. Brought to life by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy film follows five figures who wake up stranded in a far-off cottage under the malignant sway of Kyra, a possessed female occupied by a two-thousand-year-old sacred-era entity. Get ready to be hooked by a visual ride that melds instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a legendary concept in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is inverted when the monsters no longer appear from external sources, but rather from their psyche. This represents the most hidden part of the protagonists. The result is a intense mental war where the events becomes a merciless contest between divinity and wickedness.


In a isolated woodland, five characters find themselves cornered under the ghastly force and inhabitation of a obscure female figure. As the youths becomes incapacitated to resist her power, detached and attacked by beings beyond comprehension, they are confronted to acknowledge their core terrors while the clock without pity moves toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust rises and bonds splinter, coercing each character to examine their character and the principle of autonomy itself. The threat grow with every heartbeat, delivering a paranormal ride that integrates ghostly evil with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to channel instinctual horror, an evil born of forgotten ages, influencing human fragility, and wrestling with a will that dismantles free will when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra demanded embodying something beneath mortal despair. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that metamorphosis is gut-wrenching because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing streamers worldwide can engage with this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has seen over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Join this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these unholy truths about our species.


For exclusive trailers, special features, and social posts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across platforms and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar weaves biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, plus Franchise Rumbles

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in mythic scripture as well as series comebacks alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated plus blueprinted year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. the big studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, while SVOD players prime the fall with discovery plays as well as primordial unease. On the festival side, independent banners is buoyed by the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, however this time, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures rolls out the capstone of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, plus otherworld rules that chill. The bar is raised this go, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror duet featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. 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.

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 looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. 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’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, 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.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 spook slate: brand plays, universe starters, plus A brimming Calendar designed for chills

Dek: The current genre cycle crowds right away with a January logjam, subsequently runs through summer, and continuing into the late-year period, mixing marquee clout, new concepts, and strategic counterprogramming. Studios and platforms are embracing mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that frame these offerings into national conversation.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has established itself as the bankable tool in release strategies, a genre that can scale when it breaks through and still buffer the losses when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year showed greenlighters that lean-budget chillers can lead the zeitgeist, 2024 held pace with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a lineup that presents tight coordination across companies, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of household franchises and new pitches, and a revived emphasis on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and digital services.

Insiders argue the space now functions as a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can launch on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and vertical videos, and outpace with viewers that show up on Thursday previews and stick through the week two if the offering satisfies. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm reflects certainty in that model. The calendar opens with a weighty January corridor, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while reserving space for a fall cadence that pushes into late October and into November. The map also shows the increasing integration of indie distributors and OTT outlets that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and widen at the precise moment.

A second macro trend is brand curation across shared IP webs and heritage properties. Major shops are not just pushing another return. They are trying to present lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that signals a tonal shift or a casting choice that links a next film to a original cycle. At the very same time, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are doubling down on practical craft, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That combination provides 2026 a healthy mix of brand comfort and shock, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two marquee plays that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a fan-service aware strategy without replaying the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Count on a promo wave anchored in iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will stress. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek general-audience talk through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever defines the social talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete pushes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that mutates into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-form creative that interweaves companionship and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are set up as marquee events, with a minimalist tease and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The prime October weekend gives the studio room 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a gritty, on-set effects led style can feel big on a moderate cost. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror hit that embraces offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio deploys two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is billing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature builds, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in historical precision and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that amplifies both FOMO and sign-up momentum in the tail. Prime Video interleaves licensed content with international acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using editorial spots, holiday hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival buys, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count 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 curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to buy select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, updated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their user base.

Series vs standalone

By volume, 2026 leans in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident click site Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and auteur plays add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the bundle is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

The last three-year set illuminate the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not hamper a simultaneous release test from winning when the brand was robust. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror punched above its weight in PLF. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they angle differently and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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 back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to interlace chapters through character spine and themes and to continue assets in field without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries point to a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that spotlights unease and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that keeps plot minimal, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is jammed. 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 foggy reset amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons 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 credible, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can hit 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 shuffled through big rooms.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s synthetic partner evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 demanding boss push to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that explores the unease of a child’s tricky read. Rating: to be announced. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-financed and celebrity-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that teases today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household linked to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: undetermined. Production: proceeding. 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 time-true diction and elemental dread. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that downshifted or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 leverage those opportunities. 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. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound field, 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 Promising 2026

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is recognizable IP where it plays, auteur intent 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.