Mythic Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across leading streamers

An bone-chilling occult scare-fest from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient entity when unrelated individuals become conduits in a fiendish maze. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of perseverance and primordial malevolence that will reconstruct the fear genre this Halloween season. Directed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy film follows five unknowns who are stirred imprisoned in a far-off dwelling under the hostile sway of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Prepare to be immersed by a motion picture event that intertwines soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a historical concept in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is subverted when the entities no longer originate outside the characters, but rather from within. This marks the most terrifying version of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a constant battle between innocence and sin.


In a desolate landscape, five individuals find themselves sealed under the malevolent force and possession of a enigmatic spirit. As the group becomes unable to deny her curse, marooned and chased by evils unimaginable, they are required to acknowledge their emotional phantoms while the countdown ruthlessly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia amplifies and connections disintegrate, urging each participant to rethink their existence and the structure of conscious will itself. The stakes mount with every fleeting time, delivering a horror experience that intertwines unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dig into basic terror, an darkness older than civilization itself, channeling itself through emotional vulnerability, and navigating a darkness that challenges autonomy when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is uninformed until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that watchers worldwide can experience this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its initial teaser, which has received over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Join this visceral spiral into evil. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to survive these spiritual awakenings about human nature.


For teasers, director cuts, and announcements from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s major pivot: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate interlaces biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, and brand-name tremors

Spanning grit-forward survival fare steeped in ancient scripture through to legacy revivals paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 appears poised to be the richest plus deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors bookend the months with known properties, concurrently streaming platforms front-load the fall with new voices together with mythic dread. On another front, independent banners is catching the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a clear present-tense world. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. timed for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, along with eerie supernatural rules. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative with Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. 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 smart play. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Projection: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The 2026 terror calendar year ahead: installments, fresh concepts, paired with A busy Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The arriving terror cycle builds up front with a January crush, thereafter extends through June and July, and well into the winter holidays, balancing franchise firepower, novel approaches, and smart counterplay. Studios and platforms are leaning into right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and social-driven marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into mainstream chatter.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has established itself as the predictable swing in release strategies, a genre that can expand when it connects and still safeguard the drawdown when it does not. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that efficiently budgeted entries can galvanize mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The carry carried into 2025, where revived properties and festival-grade titles showed there is an opening for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a slate that shows rare alignment across companies, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a refocused priority on release windows that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the space now works like a versatile piece on the slate. Horror can arrive on numerous frames, yield a grabby hook for previews and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that show up on advance nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the picture pays off. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup telegraphs comfort in that playbook. The year gets underway with a thick January window, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a autumn push that connects to the Halloween frame and into early November. The gridline also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and platforms that can stage a platform run, spark evangelism, and expand at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just rolling another installment. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a re-angled tone or a lead change that ties a next entry to a first wave. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the most watched originals are favoring tactile craft, real effects and location-forward worlds. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a strong blend of trust and discovery, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with imp source two front-of-slate projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance signals a legacy-leaning framework without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. A campaign is expected centered on legacy iconography, character-first teases, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek general-audience talk through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever leads pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, grief-rooted, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that grows into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to bring back eerie street stunts and snackable content that hybridizes romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out 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 presented as marquee events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to saturate 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects method can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a splatter summer horror surge that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing 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 diehards and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around canon, and creature design, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror built on immersive craft and period speech, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that maximizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival wins, confirming horror entries tight to release and staging as events launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern sonics and picture. 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 hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is steady enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that observed windows did not hamper a parallel release from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reframe POV and widen scale. 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 shot in tandem, enables marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind these films signal a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, Get More Info meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid headline IP. 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 meaningful, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: mood-led 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 unyielding boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting setup that pipes the unease through a youngster’s volatile inner lens. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family bound to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three grounded forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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 cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and framing 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.