Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

One haunting unearthly scare-fest from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an forgotten dread when newcomers become puppets in a cursed maze. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing episode of resilience and ancient evil that will reshape the fear genre this cool-weather season. Guided by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and immersive screenplay follows five people who come to sealed in a wooded cabin under the hostile power of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a biblical-era holy text monster. Ready yourself to be drawn in by a theatrical spectacle that blends bodily fright with ancestral stories, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a mainstay tradition in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is flipped when the monsters no longer appear from external sources, but rather through their own souls. This represents the most sinister shade of each of them. The result is a emotionally raw psychological battle where the drama becomes a ongoing battle between light and darkness.


In a abandoned outland, five souls find themselves caught under the dark force and overtake of a uncanny being. As the characters becomes incapacitated to deny her manipulation, abandoned and stalked by creatures mind-shattering, they are obligated to battle their darkest emotions while the doomsday meter coldly ticks onward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and ties crack, demanding each protagonist to reflect on their core and the structure of self-determination itself. The consequences escalate with every heartbeat, delivering a horror experience that fuses spiritual fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke raw dread, an spirit older than civilization itself, embedding itself in emotional fractures, and highlighting a curse that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra asked for exploring something beyond human emotion. She is ignorant until the demon emerges, and that transformation is eerie because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring fans worldwide can engage with this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has pulled in over strong viewer count.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, presenting the nightmare to fans of fear everywhere.


Witness this cinematic ride through nightmares. Experience *Young & Cursed* this launch day to experience these evil-rooted truths about the soul.


For featurettes, special features, and social posts directly from production, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie portal.





American horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate weaves old-world possession, independent shockers, together with series shake-ups

Ranging from survivor-centric dread drawn from near-Eastern lore to legacy revivals alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified and blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors bookend the months with established lines, even as OTT services load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and primordial unease. On the festival side, the independent cohort is propelled by the carry from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are exacting, accordingly 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

The top end is active. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. set 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. Under Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer winds down, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma as text, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Offerings: Slim budgets, major punch

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Signals and Trends

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

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching terror cycle: installments, standalone ideas, and also A Crowded Calendar aimed at nightmares

Dek: The brand-new genre slate clusters up front with a January wave, subsequently unfolds through summer corridors, and straight through the holidays, braiding franchise firepower, untold stories, and smart counterweight. Studios and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror sector has become the steady lever in annual schedules, a pillar that can grow when it lands and still insulate the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that cost-conscious shockers can drive social chatter, 2024 maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The energy flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and awards-minded projects made clear there is demand for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to original features that play globally. The net effect for 2026 is a slate that is strikingly coherent across companies, with mapped-out bands, a blend of known properties and untested plays, and a sharpened stance on theatrical windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Insiders argue the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can open on open real estate, furnish a tight logline for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with crowds that show up on previews Thursday and sustain through the second weekend if the title delivers. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 setup reflects trust in that playbook. The year commences with a heavy January block, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a September to October window that flows toward Halloween and afterwards. The grid also features the greater integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can grow from platform, generate chatter, and move wide at the proper time.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just pushing another entry. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a art treatment that announces a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that reconnects a incoming chapter to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are favoring hands-on technique, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount opens strong with two prominent 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 handoff and a heritage-centered character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach indicates a legacy-leaning framework without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with heritage visuals, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will hunt wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that becomes a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror odd public stunts and short-cut promos that threads devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are sold as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to own 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gnarly, on-set effects led style can feel top-tier on a middle budget. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror hit that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio deploys two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is marketing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take his comment is here has a clearer mandate to serve both longtime followers and casuals. The fall slot lets Sony to build assets around universe detail, and monster craft, elements that can boost premium screens and cosplayer momentum.

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 continues Eggers’ run of period horror centered on minute detail and historical speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is robust.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s slate flow to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a stair-step that boosts both launch urgency and sign-up spikes in the later window. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in deep cuts, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and collection rows to sustain interest on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival pickups, confirming horror entries on shorter runways and coalescing around debuts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a hybrid of precision releases and fast windowing that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to open out. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, the 2026 slate tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a European tilt from a fresh helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the assembly is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not preclude a dual release from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they alter lens and elevate scope. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a imp source path for marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The director conversations behind this slate indicate a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion grows into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric 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 hard-edged boss try to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to horror, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that frames the panic through a child’s shifting perspective. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly 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 satirizes present-day genre chatter and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for 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 bursts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-driven horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing. 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 period-precise speech and ancient menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three grounded forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will line up across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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 pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, 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.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.