Age-old Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, rolling out October 2025 on major streaming services

One frightening metaphysical scare-fest from screenwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an primeval evil when drifters become conduits in a hellish conflict. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of survival and ancient evil that will revolutionize the fear genre this harvest season. Helmed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and cinematic screenplay follows five unknowns who come to imprisoned in a unreachable shelter under the dark manipulation of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Brace yourself to be seized by a immersive presentation that combines bodily fright with mythic lore, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a mainstay pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the malevolences no longer arise outside their bodies, but rather from within. This illustrates the most primal version of all involved. The result is a riveting moral showdown where the plotline becomes a brutal confrontation between innocence and sin.


In a desolate no-man's-land, five campers find themselves confined under the sinister aura and infestation of a mysterious entity. As the youths becomes incapacitated to fight her dominion, marooned and targeted by evils inconceivable, they are required to stand before their deepest fears while the moments unforgivingly ticks onward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust builds and associations implode, driving each cast member to reconsider their true nature and the philosophy of volition itself. The threat escalate with every heartbeat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to explore primal fear, an threat from ancient eras, manifesting in emotional fractures, and examining a spirit that redefines identity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is ignorant until the evil takes hold, and that metamorphosis is soul-crushing because it is so private.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for public screening beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure audiences no matter where they are can engage with this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has gathered over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, bringing the film to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this visceral spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these dark realities about free will.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 season stateside slate integrates primeval-possession lore, indie terrors, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Across grit-forward survival fare drawn from mythic scripture all the way to IP renewals and focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered as well as tactically planned year in years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio powerhouses stabilize the year with established lines, as premium streamers crowd the fall with debut heat plus scriptural shivers. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is fueled by the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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 hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
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 returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. 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 assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next scare year to come: brand plays, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A jammed Calendar aimed at nightmares

Dek The brand-new genre year clusters up front with a January pile-up, thereafter unfolds through the summer months, and carrying into the December corridor, marrying brand heft, inventive spins, and tactical offsets. Major distributors and platforms are betting on efficient budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that frame these films into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has proven to be the predictable release in studio slates, a category that can surge when it clicks and still cushion the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 re-taught greenlighters that mid-range shockers can own cultural conversation, the following year continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam carried into 2025, where revived properties and prestige plays made clear there is capacity for varied styles, from returning installments to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The combined impact for 2026 is a programming that seems notably aligned across studios, with obvious clusters, a combination of recognizable IP and new packages, and a reinvigorated attention on cinema windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on PVOD and OTT platforms.

Executives say the category now works like a utility player on the rollout map. The genre can kick off on nearly any frame, furnish a easy sell for marketing and shorts, and lead with demo groups that line up on early shows and return through the follow-up frame if the feature hits. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that setup. The slate starts with a thick January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while saving space for a October build that reaches into spooky season and beyond. The layout also reflects the expanded integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and broaden at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and storied titles. The studios are not just mounting another return. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a star attachment that connects a new installment to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are championing practical craft, real effects and site-specific worlds. That interplay yields 2026 a smart balance of assurance and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece pushes that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a throwback-friendly bent without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign fueled by signature symbols, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also revives 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 draw the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after general-audience talk through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever tops genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is efficient, melancholic, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that escalates into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to recreate uncanny live moments and bite-size content that fuses devotion and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a public title to become an event moment closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are set up as filmmaker events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to take 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered mix can feel deluxe on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror hit that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a trusty supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach 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 diehards and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can drive great post to read PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by rigorous craft and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that fortifies both launch urgency and trial spikes in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves third-party pickups with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using featured rows, horror hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival additions, finalizing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 runway with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized 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 announced a big-screen first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to move out. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-driven genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using boutique theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap household recognition. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the configuration is steady enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps announce the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that held distribution windows did not block a dual release from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reframe POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries signal a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that highlights unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely navigate to this website warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and artisan spotlights before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to con floor moments and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

January is packed. 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 quiet contrast amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down 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 meaningful, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits 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 loss-struck man’s virtual companion unfolds into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: aura-driven 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 hard-edged boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance of power tilts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, rooted in Cronin’s on-set craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production 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 home-set haunting narrative that mediates the fear via a kid’s unsteady subjective view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-grade and name-above-title supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that teases current genre trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated 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 surges, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a young family tethered to residual nightmares. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on pure survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. 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 primal menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why this year, why now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-slotted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 debuts. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments 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 works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 underdog chase 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a array, 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 turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, tight deployments, 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 materiality, sound, and visuals 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 Looks Exciting

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.