Antediluvian Dread rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An chilling mystic suspense film from dramatist / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an age-old malevolence when drifters become tools in a malevolent experiment. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful narrative of survival and archaic horror that will resculpt the horror genre this autumn. Visualized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and cinematic cinema piece follows five individuals who awaken trapped in a off-grid lodge under the hostile grip of Kyra, a troubled woman occupied by a time-worn scriptural evil. Ready yourself to be immersed by a theatrical presentation that fuses instinctive fear with mystical narratives, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a legendary motif in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the entities no longer descend from an outside force, but rather from their core. This symbolizes the most primal element of the protagonists. The result is a relentless mental war where the plotline becomes a perpetual contest between moral forces.


In a remote terrain, five figures find themselves contained under the unholy effect and overtake of a unknown woman. As the group becomes helpless to reject her curse, stranded and attacked by beings impossible to understand, they are thrust to reckon with their inner demons while the clock without pause draws closer toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease mounts and associations crack, compelling each survivor to contemplate their personhood and the foundation of freedom of choice itself. The hazard surge with every breath, delivering a chilling narrative that marries paranormal dread with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to awaken core terror, an spirit born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through inner turmoil, and dealing with a will that erodes the self when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is ignorant until the entity awakens, and that pivot is emotionally raw because it is so raw.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering streamers around the globe can watch this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its release of trailer #1, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, spreading the horror to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this haunted journey into fear. Stream *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these haunting secrets about the human condition.


For previews, special features, and insider scoops from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit the official digital haunt.





Current horror’s inflection point: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar melds myth-forward possession, indie terrors, and legacy-brand quakes

Running from survivor-centric dread infused with scriptural legend and onward to returning series plus incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most textured and blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios set cornerstones with known properties, as streaming platforms prime the fall with discovery plays paired with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in an immediate now. Under director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: old school creep, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

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 Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The 2026 Horror release year: continuations, new stories, paired with A brimming Calendar optimized for chills

Dek: The fresh horror season clusters up front with a January glut, after that flows through the warm months, and carrying into the winter holidays, blending legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and calculated counter-scheduling. Major distributors and platforms are betting on efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and short-form initiatives that frame genre releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the sturdy release in studio lineups, a genre that can grow when it hits and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that cost-conscious shockers can dominate mainstream conversation, the following year carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where returns and awards-minded projects signaled there is appetite for varied styles, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that is strikingly coherent across studios, with planned clusters, a blend of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a revived eye on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and platforms.

Marketers add the space now serves as a versatile piece on the distribution slate. The genre can kick off on numerous frames, generate a sharp concept for promo reels and social clips, and exceed norms with ticket buyers that lean in on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the second frame if the picture lands. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern demonstrates faith in that playbook. The slate opens with a busy January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The program also illustrates the increasing integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can platform and widen, create conversation, and go nationwide at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Studios are not just greenlighting another entry. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that suggests a fresh attitude or a casting choice that threads a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing material texture, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That alloy affords 2026 a smart balance of recognition and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a nostalgia-forward strategy without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected rooted in classic imagery, character previews, and a rollout cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that mixes intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are marketed as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway affords Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has proven that a gritty, hands-on effects method can feel big on a controlled budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror shot that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is positioning as a new foundation 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 sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around mythos, and creature work, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that boosts both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with global acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival pickups, dating horror entries closer to drop and eventizing debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of precision releases and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 slate with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is direct: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the September weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. 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 island survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the configuration is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

The last three-year set frame the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a dual release from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and expand the canvas. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind this year’s genre signal a continued tilt toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that centers texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel key. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar cadence

January is full. 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 quiet contrast amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s synthetic partner turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 claw to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that interrogates the chill of a child’s fragile point of view. Rating: TBD. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody return that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family entangled with lingering terrors. 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: unrevealed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and ancient menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and compressed 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 launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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 my company 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.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, disciplined footprints, 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 detail, acoustics, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.