Mythic Horror Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled feature, premiering October 2025 across leading streamers

One eerie paranormal shockfest from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten horror when guests become tools in a dark struggle. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of overcoming and mythic evil that will redefine the horror genre this spooky time. Visualized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick thriller follows five strangers who emerge isolated in a wilderness-bound lodge under the menacing power of Kyra, a haunted figure consumed by a millennia-old biblical demon. Be warned to be absorbed by a big screen spectacle that harmonizes gut-punch terror with mythic lore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a legendary fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is twisted when the presences no longer appear from external sources, but rather from deep inside. This echoes the most sinister side of the protagonists. The result is a gripping mind game where the drama becomes a merciless confrontation between right and wrong.


In a wilderness-stricken natural abyss, five souls find themselves stuck under the possessive effect and control of a unknown female presence. As the group becomes incapacitated to evade her curse, left alone and pursued by terrors impossible to understand, they are pushed to endure their inner horrors while the hours without pity strikes toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and bonds break, pushing each figure to reconsider their character and the foundation of liberty itself. The pressure intensify with every instant, delivering a cinematic nightmare that blends otherworldly panic with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to explore elemental fright, an curse beyond time, working through psychological breaks, and exposing a evil that tests the soul when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that transformation is haunting because it is so visceral.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving households in all regions can face this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has been viewed over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Experience this haunted descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to witness these terrifying truths about mankind.


For previews, on-set glimpses, and social posts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit the film’s website.





Today’s horror inflection point: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule integrates old-world possession, festival-born jolts, alongside tentpole growls

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories steeped in scriptural legend as well as franchise returns paired with focused festival visions, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted and tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Top studios lay down anchors by way of signature titles, as OTT services crowd the fall with fresh voices in concert with legend-coded dread. On the festival side, the art-house flank is fueled by the kinetic energy of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp sets the tone with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, instead in a current-day frame. Directed by 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. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Helmed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, the WB camp drops the final chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It posts in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Underneath: 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 narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

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. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

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

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

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 surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Laurels convert to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 terror slate: entries, universe starters, alongside A stacked Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek The incoming terror calendar loads up front with a January cluster, from there runs through June and July, and straight through the winter holidays, fusing brand equity, inventive spins, and strategic counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that transform these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has emerged as the dependable tool in release plans, a category that can grow when it resonates and still safeguard the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that responsibly budgeted scare machines can drive pop culture, the following year maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The carry carried into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films signaled there is space for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across studios, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a renewed focus on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now performs as a schedule utility on the distribution slate. The genre can kick off on many corridors, create a easy sell for marketing and platform-native cuts, and outpace with patrons that line up on advance nights and hold through the second weekend if the offering hits. After a production delay era, the 2026 pattern demonstrates belief in that dynamic. The calendar opens with a busy January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall run that extends to Halloween and into post-Halloween. The layout also reflects the greater integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and broaden at the strategic time.

An added macro current is brand strategy across connected story worlds and classic IP. Major shops are not just producing another chapter. They are looking to package brand continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that suggests a new tone or a casting move that binds a upcoming film to a heyday. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are returning to material texture, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a lineage transfer and a classic-mode character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the tonal posture points to a classic-referencing bent without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by classic imagery, character spotlights, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever drives trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, grief-rooted, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that grows into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that threads devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are presented as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 leads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, physical-effects centered method can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is selling as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build materials around environmental design, and creature design, elements that can lift premium screens and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video blends library titles with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, fright rows, and programmed rows to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival wins, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to widen. That positioning has worked well for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception allows. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By number, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to package each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is emphasizing character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and auteur plays add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday previews.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that honored streaming windows did not hamper a parallel release from delivering when the brand was robust. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind this year’s genre indicate a continued move toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that elevates creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is heavy. Universal’s 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 heavier IP. The month winds down 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 variety 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 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now hosts Source big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. 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, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion grows into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss struggle to survive on a rugged island as the hierarchy upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to terror, driven by Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 chiller that channels the fear through a little one’s flickering perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned 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 detonates, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: pending. Production: continuing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 era-faithful speech and elemental fear. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate clippable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. 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 ideal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror click site fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, audio design, 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.

2026, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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, cut sharp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.