Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One blood-curdling spectral terror film from dramatist / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric malevolence when unrelated individuals become subjects in a demonic conflict. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving account of living through and old world terror that will redefine fear-driven cinema this season. Visualized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and atmospheric motion picture follows five lost souls who regain consciousness isolated in a unreachable cabin under the menacing dominion of Kyra, a central character occupied by a prehistoric biblical demon. Prepare to be hooked by a immersive display that combines bodily fright with arcane tradition, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a time-honored pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the malevolences no longer appear externally, but rather deep within. This depicts the haunting element of the players. The result is a enthralling internal warfare where the intensity becomes a perpetual face-off between good and evil.


In a barren landscape, five characters find themselves cornered under the sinister dominion and control of a unidentified woman. As the victims becomes submissive to evade her rule, severed and targeted by unknowns mind-shattering, they are thrust to battle their inner horrors while the doomsday meter coldly moves toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and ties collapse, pressuring each figure to reconsider their character and the philosophy of self-determination itself. The pressure grow with every minute, delivering a cinematic nightmare that combines spiritual fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to tap into raw dread, an threat older than civilization itself, channeling itself through mental cracks, and dealing with a darkness that tests the soul when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra demanded embodying something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the takeover begins, and that shift is gut-wrenching because it is so visceral.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring watchers around the globe can enjoy this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has earned over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, exporting the fear to a global viewership.


Don’t miss this soul-jarring ride through nightmares. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these haunting secrets about the mind.


For film updates, set experiences, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YACMovie across your socials and visit the official digital haunt.





Current horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans domestic schedule blends legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, plus tentpole growls

Across life-or-death fear grounded in primordial scripture and including returning series plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the richest together with intentionally scheduled year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. the big studios set cornerstones by way of signature titles, at the same time SVOD players flood the fall with unboxed visions in concert with old-world menace. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is carried on the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are targeted, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: The Return of Prestige Fear

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

Universal’s slate sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No canon weight. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. 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. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, from Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: 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 like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 spook slate: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, alongside A Crowded Calendar designed for shocks

Dek The brand-new horror cycle packs in short order with a January pile-up, subsequently stretches through the warm months, and carrying into the festive period, combining franchise firepower, novel approaches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that frame genre titles into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has shown itself to be the surest play in release plans, a corner that can scale when it hits and still mitigate the drawdown when it misses. After the 2023 year proved to greenlighters that lean-budget chillers can drive mainstream conversation, the following year kept energy high with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The trend pushed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers proved there is a market for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to fresh IP that travel well. The net effect for 2026 is a lineup that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with strategic blocks, a balance of marquee IP and new concepts, and a re-energized commitment on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Distribution heads claim the category now works like a versatile piece on the programming map. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, furnish a tight logline for teasers and shorts, and outpace with patrons that line up on previews Thursday and stick through the next weekend if the movie pays off. Exiting a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates conviction in that setup. The year gets underway with a stacked January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that reaches into late October and past the holiday. The program also underscores the stronger partnership of specialized imprints and streamers that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and scale up at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across brand ecosystems and classic IP. The studios are not just pushing another entry. They are trying to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that signals a reframed mood or a star attachment that bridges a new entry to a first wave. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most watched originals are celebrating physical effects work, special makeup and grounded locations. That combination yields the 2026 slate a confident blend of trust and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two headline titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach suggests a classic-referencing angle without retreading the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in recognizable motifs, character previews, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also brings back 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will generate general-audience talk through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick pivots to whatever drives trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined projects. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an AI companion that grows into a deadly partner. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with the marketing arm likely to echo uncanny live moments and snackable content that hybridizes companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a proper title to become an attention spike closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are framed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween runway lets the studio to command 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a visceral, prosthetic-heavy mix can feel elevated on a middle budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror shot that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around lore, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror built on meticulous craft and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a structure that boosts both launch urgency and trial spikes in the tail. Prime Video combines licensed titles with worldwide entries and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and staff picks to stretch the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about original films 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, capitalizes on a two-step of focused cinema runs and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown a willingness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 runway with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, refined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, managing the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception encourages. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchise entries versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage marquee value. The trade-off, as ever, is audience fatigue. The practical approach is to present each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a ascendant talent. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is steady enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps contextualize the playbook. In 2023, a theater-first model that observed windows did not block a hybrid test from performing when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind 2026 horror indicate a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds mood and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel key. Look for trailers that accent hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is stacked. 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 somber counterpoint amid larger brand plays. The month buttons 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 real, but the range of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a early fall window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then activating 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 turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 abrasive boss work to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting piece that twists the horror of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: TBD. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: More about the author {A comic send-up that teases hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 ignites, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family entangled with past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. 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 era-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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. 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, tight deployments, 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 materiality, audio design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.