Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient terror, a hair raising chiller, streaming Oct 2025 across leading streamers

A haunting otherworldly suspense story from scriptwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless dread when newcomers become proxies in a demonic contest. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a intense depiction of living through and timeless dread that will revolutionize horror this scare season. Produced by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and emotionally thick film follows five people who are stirred stuck in a wilderness-bound wooden structure under the sinister influence of Kyra, a troubled woman controlled by a legendary Old Testament spirit. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a visual display that weaves together deep-seated panic with ancestral stories, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a well-established fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is radically shifted when the dark entities no longer arise from external sources, but rather deep within. This echoes the most primal corner of each of them. The result is a edge-of-seat emotional conflict where the narrative becomes a relentless fight between good and evil.


In a desolate wilderness, five characters find themselves stuck under the sinister aura and spiritual invasion of a obscure apparition. As the cast becomes submissive to fight her power, disconnected and chased by presences unnamable, they are compelled to wrestle with their greatest panics while the clock brutally moves toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension surges and relationships erode, pressuring each figure to question their character and the concept of decision-making itself. The tension escalate with every tick, delivering a nightmarish journey that integrates spiritual fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to evoke core terror, an threat older than civilization itself, manipulating emotional fractures, and confronting a evil that questions who we are when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something beneath mortal despair. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering horror lovers worldwide can watch this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original promo, which has pulled in over six-figure audience.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling fall into madness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these ghostly lessons about our species.


For exclusive trailers, set experiences, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate blends primeval-possession lore, festival-born jolts, and tentpole growls

Kicking off with grit-forward survival fare saturated with old testament echoes and stretching into canon extensions alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered combined with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios set cornerstones with familiar IP, even as OTT services stack the fall with unboxed visions in concert with archetypal fear. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are exacting, and 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

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

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No continuity burden. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

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

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, guided by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to 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.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The 2026 scare release year: Sequels, fresh concepts, alongside A jammed Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek: The current genre year stacks immediately with a January bottleneck, thereafter extends through the summer months, and pushing into the holiday stretch, weaving legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and calculated offsets. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that pivot these films into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This category has established itself as the steady tool in studio calendars, a corner that can lift when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it doesn’t. After 2023 showed executives that responsibly budgeted genre plays can own the zeitgeist, the following year extended the rally with filmmaker-forward plays and surprise hits. The momentum translated to the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects highlighted there is demand for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that carry overseas. The sum for 2026 is a run that is strikingly coherent across players, with mapped-out bands, a harmony of known properties and untested plays, and a re-energized priority on cinema windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a flex slot on the distribution slate. Horror can kick off on many corridors, supply a sharp concept for teasers and platform-native cuts, and over-index with fans that respond on advance nights and stick through the sophomore frame if the film works. After a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates confidence in that engine. The year rolls out with a busy January band, then leans on spring and early summer for counterweight, while making space for a fall run that connects to the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The schedule also illustrates the stronger partnership of indie distributors and subscription services that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is series management across connected story worlds and long-running brands. Major shops are not just producing another continuation. They are setting up brand continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a reframed mood or a casting choice that connects a upcoming film to a first wave. At the alongside this, the writer-directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are prioritizing practical craft, practical effects and concrete locations. That alloy yields the 2026 slate a solid mix of assurance and unexpected turns, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two centerpiece projects that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a handoff and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a classic-referencing treatment without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout stacked with recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan 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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will build mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, heartbroken, and premise-first: a grieving man adopts an virtual partner that shifts into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to renew viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that melds affection and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken 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 permits a official title to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are branded as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-October frame offers Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel premium on a controlled budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror charge that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is framing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can amplify format premiums and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and dialect, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a sequence that enhances both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the later phase. Prime Video balances licensed films with cross-border buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to sustain interest on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival deals, timing horror entries on shorter runways and coalescing around arrivals with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for retention when the genre conversation surges.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-first horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and his comment is here New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps contextualize the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not deter a dual release from winning when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reorient and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 shot back-to-back, permits marketing to bridge entries through cast and motif and to leave creative active without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind this slate hint at a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which match well with fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

January is crowded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand navigate to this website plays. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting tale that mediates the fear via a kid’s unsteady internal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-grade and star-fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that teases modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further extends again, with a fresh family caught in past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 elemental menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical 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, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

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

Exhibitors respond well to 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 warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, and imagery 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, Lined Up To Scare

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the gasps sell the seats.