Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across top digital platforms

An hair-raising spiritual horror tale from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an ancient force when passersby become tools in a demonic conflict. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a intense account of overcoming and primeval wickedness that will revolutionize the fear genre this October. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and eerie motion picture follows five strangers who snap to stuck in a wilderness-bound cottage under the unfriendly control of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a ancient sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a visual ride that weaves together deep-seated panic with ancient myths, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the beings no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the haunting side of every character. The result is a enthralling cognitive warzone where the emotions becomes a merciless fight between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak landscape, five souls find themselves sealed under the malicious force and curse of a uncanny apparition. As the group becomes powerless to combat her grasp, stranded and targeted by presences unimaginable, they are driven to face their inner demons while the deathwatch harrowingly draws closer toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia rises and connections break, prompting each member to doubt their personhood and the concept of conscious will itself. The consequences rise with every second, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges otherworldly suspense with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel deep fear, an power that predates humanity, manipulating our fears, and dealing with a spirit that redefines identity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant evoking something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the invasion happens, and that flip is haunting because it is so intimate.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers from coast to coast can be part of this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has earned over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Experience this soul-jarring spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these dark realities about human nature.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and press updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit our spooky domain.





American horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts braids together legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside franchise surges

Moving from endurance-driven terror suffused with primordial scripture and onward to franchise returns plus cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most complex in tandem with strategic year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. top-tier distributors set cornerstones using marquee IP, as subscription platforms saturate the fall with unboxed visions in concert with old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is surfing the tailwinds from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are methodical, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, plus otherworld rules that chill. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Originals: No Budget, No Problem

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes 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 save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 Horror season: next chapters, fresh concepts, paired with A jammed Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek: The incoming terror cycle builds right away with a January wave, after that spreads through June and July, and pushing into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and tactical counterprogramming. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that shape genre titles into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has become the dependable play in programming grids, a genre that can expand when it breaks through and still cushion the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reassured executives that low-to-mid budget genre plays can lead the national conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and stealth successes. The head of steam rolled into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and critical darlings underscored there is space for varied styles, from returning installments to original features that play globally. The upshot for 2026 is a slate that shows rare alignment across the industry, with defined corridors, a combination of familiar brands and first-time concepts, and a refocused stance on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium rental and digital services.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now works like a schedule utility on the calendar. Horror can launch on a wide range of weekends, create a quick sell for trailers and social clips, and punch above weight with patrons that come out on previews Thursday and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the offering lands. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 setup demonstrates belief in that dynamic. The calendar rolls out with a weighty January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a September to October window that pushes into spooky season and into the next week. The calendar also features the expanded integration of specialized labels and platforms that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and widen at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. Big banners are not just producing another sequel. They are setting up threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that links a latest entry to a first wave. At the same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to physical effects work, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and newness, which is why the genre exports well.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee titles that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged approach without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign fueled by franchise iconography, early character teases, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an AI companion that mutates into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a stacked January, with the Universal machine likely to reprise off-kilter promo beats and short reels that interweaves companionship and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a final title to become an attention spike closer to the debut look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are set up as signature events, with a mystery-first teaser and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-month date lets the studio to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, practical-first method can feel prestige on a mid-range budget. Position this as a gore-forward summer horror surge that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is positioning as a fresh restart 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 directive to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can lift large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by historical precision and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that optimizes both initial urgency and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to drop and making event-like launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a big-screen first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect 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 as a pair, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their user base.

Series vs standalone

By weight, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps make sense of the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a same-day experiment from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and raise the stakes. 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 two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind 2026 horror signal a continued bias toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on tone and tension rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature and environment design, which match well with con floor moments and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in big rooms.

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: gothic-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 severe boss push to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that refracts terror through a child’s wavering subjective view. Rating: pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-crafted and celebrity-led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans this content brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody reboot that satirizes today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 flares, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family entangled with past horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming placements. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 stealth-hit search 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a my review here Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, 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 escalate across the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, lock the reveals, and let the gasps sell the seats.