Ancient Malevolence rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across major platforms

A eerie paranormal thriller from scriptwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primeval evil when outsiders become conduits in a fiendish maze. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a intense saga of endurance and prehistoric entity that will revolutionize the fear genre this Halloween season. Crafted by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and eerie feature follows five unknowns who snap to stuck in a unreachable lodge under the hostile grip of Kyra, a possessed female occupied by a prehistoric biblical demon. Brace yourself to be drawn in by a narrative adventure that intertwines visceral dread with folklore, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a long-standing motif in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reversed when the spirits no longer arise outside the characters, but rather from deep inside. This suggests the most sinister shade of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the intensity becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving natural abyss, five youths find themselves imprisoned under the malicious dominion and curse of a mysterious woman. As the group becomes powerless to combat her command, abandoned and targeted by spirits unnamable, they are made to acknowledge their worst nightmares while the hours mercilessly edges forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion rises and ties break, demanding each member to challenge their character and the idea of decision-making itself. The tension escalate with every fleeting time, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that connects otherworldly panic with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover elemental fright, an force that existed before mankind, feeding on emotional fractures, and questioning a force that erodes the self when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is in denial until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is haunting because it is so intimate.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing streamers globally can be part of this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original clip, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to viewers around the world.


Witness this bone-rattling fall into madness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to face these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For cast commentary, behind-the-scenes content, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit the official digital haunt.





Today’s horror Turning Point: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts melds Mythic Possession, signature indie scares, together with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from life-or-death fear rooted in ancient scripture all the way to installment follow-ups plus surgical indie voices, 2025 is coalescing into the genre’s most multifaceted plus tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio powerhouses hold down the year with established lines, simultaneously platform operators stack the fall with new perspectives paired with old-world menace. In parallel, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal starts the year with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring 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. Slated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, the WB camp releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece fronted 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 reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

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

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives 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, with Francis Lawrence directing, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forecast: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. 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.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The 2026 scare slate: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, alongside A busy Calendar calibrated for frights

Dek: The emerging terror calendar crowds from the jump with a January crush, after that stretches through the warm months, and well into the December corridor, mixing series momentum, inventive spins, and shrewd release strategy. Studios and streamers are prioritizing lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that pivot these films into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the predictable counterweight in programming grids, a vertical that can surge when it resonates and still mitigate the drag when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that lean-budget shockers can dominate the zeitgeist, the following year held pace with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is a lane for several lanes, from series extensions to non-IP projects that export nicely. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a lineup that presents tight coordination across studios, with clear date clusters, a blend of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a recommitted priority on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Executives say the space now functions as a utility player on the rollout map. Horror can roll out on many corridors, supply a simple premise for ad units and platform-native cuts, and outstrip with crowds that lean in on opening previews and hold through the sophomore frame if the title works. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout underscores comfort in that model. The calendar launches with a loaded January block, then primes spring and early summer for contrast, while making space for a October build that flows toward spooky season and afterwards. The map also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and subscription services that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and grow at the right moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just rolling another entry. They are working to present connection with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a new vibe or a ensemble decision that bridges a next film to a vintage era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to hands-on technique, special makeup and grounded locations. That combination affords the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and newness, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two prominent plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a roots-evoking framework without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout leaning on heritage visuals, initial cast looks, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will generate mass reach through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever shapes the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear entries. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is crisp, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an AI companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to revisit uncanny live moments and brief clips that threads attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under imp source development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele projects are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to own 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a visceral, physical-effects centered style can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror shock that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both launch urgency and trial spikes in the back half. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with cross-border buys and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and collection rows to maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival buys, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a laddered of precision theatrical plays and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with established auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly activity when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 runway with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a standard theatrical run for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to move out. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception warrants. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their user base.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap household recognition. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a fresh helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and auteur plays deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is steady enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Comps from the last three years frame the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from performing when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they angle differently 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft conversations behind the year’s horror forecast a continued move toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that highlights grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which match well with con floor moments and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month caps 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 meaningful, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. 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 devastated man’s AI companion unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 tough boss work to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power tilts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to terror, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that explores the unease of a child’s tricky POV. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house 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 parody reboot that teases of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed 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. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, 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 beat and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, 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 texture, soundcraft, 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.