Mythic Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding shocker, streaming October 2025 across premium platforms

An spine-tingling mystic scare-fest from literary architect / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an timeless horror when foreigners become pawns in a fiendish conflict. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of resilience and primeval wickedness that will resculpt terror storytelling this scare season. Visualized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five unknowns who arise caught in a unreachable hideaway under the dark command of Kyra, a young woman overtaken by a two-thousand-year-old Old Testament spirit. Arm yourself to be hooked by a immersive presentation that blends gut-punch terror with spiritual backstory, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring motif in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is inverted when the presences no longer descend from an outside force, but rather from their psyche. This suggests the haunting layer of each of them. The result is a harrowing moral showdown where the story becomes a ongoing battle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak landscape, five campers find themselves marooned under the evil dominion and spiritual invasion of a secretive character. As the characters becomes submissive to deny her command, exiled and tracked by evils impossible to understand, they are forced to stand before their worst nightmares while the seconds ruthlessly draws closer toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease mounts and partnerships dissolve, forcing each figure to contemplate their personhood and the integrity of autonomy itself. The danger surge with every tick, delivering a paranormal ride that blends spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dig into deep fear, an curse beyond time, working through psychological breaks, and challenging a force that peels away humanity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is unseeing until the evil takes hold, and that metamorphosis is harrowing because it is so visceral.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering subscribers everywhere can survive this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original promo, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, exporting the fear to fans of fear everywhere.


Don’t miss this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these terrifying truths about our species.


For bonus footage, making-of footage, and news straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit the movie portal.





American horror’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts integrates archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror inspired by ancient scripture to installment follow-ups in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated along with strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, even as platform operators saturate the fall with fresh voices as well as ancient terrors. On another front, indie storytellers is buoyed by the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, accordingly 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in an immediate now. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

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

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed 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 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 entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

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

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Dials to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror resurges
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Fall saturation and a winter joker

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The new chiller slate: entries, universe starters, alongside A Crowded Calendar calibrated for frights

Dek: The new scare cycle stacks in short order with a January logjam, before it extends through midyear, and pushing into the winter holidays, combining legacy muscle, new concepts, and calculated counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are doubling down on tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that shape these films into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has emerged as the predictable play in annual schedules, a corner that can grow when it hits and still cushion the liability when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded executives that disciplined-budget fright engines can galvanize the zeitgeist, the following year continued the surge with signature-voice projects and under-the-radar smashes. The energy moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is appetite for a spectrum, from series extensions to fresh IP that export nicely. The sum for the 2026 slate is a slate that appears tightly organized across players, with clear date clusters, a equilibrium of marquee IP and novel angles, and a re-energized commitment on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now serves as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can debut on virtually any date, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and overperform with demo groups that come out on early shows and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the movie hits. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout demonstrates assurance in that setup. The calendar kicks off with a loaded January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a October build that runs into the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The schedule also reflects the deeper integration of specialty distributors and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, grow buzz, and move wide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just mounting another next film. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a new tone or a lead change that anchors a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the same time, the auteurs behind the marquee originals are celebrating material texture, practical effects and concrete locations. That fusion provides 2026 a smart balance of recognition and surprise, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two prominent plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a roots-evoking bent without retreading the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave fueled by recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that turns into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with the Universal machine likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that melds companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are framed as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives the studio room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a raw, on-set effects led approach can feel prestige on a middle budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror surge that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both players and newcomers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around canon, and creature effects, elements that can boost format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by minute detail and historical speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already my review here reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal titles window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that optimizes both launch urgency and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video will mix acquired titles with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data points to it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, fright rows, and programmed rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about original films and festival snaps, locking in horror entries toward the drop and elevating as drops debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that drives paid trials from buzz. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using niche channels 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 buy select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Keep an eye 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 as partners, using select theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By share, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is emphasizing character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add 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, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is comforting enough to spark pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent comps outline the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror hit big in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens 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 double feature plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate hint at a continued turn toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that foregrounds mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature and environment design, which work nicely for fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

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 somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month ends 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 serious, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

End of summer through fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s intelligent companion shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: gothic-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 tough boss push to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s on-set craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that explores the horror of a child’s unreliable senses. Rating: to be announced. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-financed and celebrity-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime crazes. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family caught in residual nightmares. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: not yet rated. 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 period-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, controlled scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 stealth-hit search 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 capitalize on those pockets. 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. 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 year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, 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, produce clean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.