Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on global platforms

This blood-curdling supernatural shockfest from writer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primeval dread when foreigners become vehicles in a malevolent conflict. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish depiction of endurance and primordial malevolence that will reshape fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Produced by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and moody tale follows five individuals who wake up ensnared in a unreachable wooden structure under the aggressive command of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a antiquated religious nightmare. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a big screen adventure that intertwines bone-deep fear with folklore, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a recurring element in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the beings no longer appear outside the characters, but rather from within. This symbolizes the darkest element of every character. The result is a harrowing identity crisis where the intensity becomes a constant clash between good and evil.


In a forsaken outland, five friends find themselves caught under the ghastly effect and haunting of a haunted female figure. As the ensemble becomes helpless to evade her power, cut off and targeted by powers impossible to understand, they are obligated to face their core terrors while the final hour relentlessly counts down toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and relationships crack, coercing each person to contemplate their essence and the notion of decision-making itself. The risk climb with every instant, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes occult fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to extract raw dread, an darkness beyond recorded history, emerging via psychological breaks, and examining a being that erodes the self when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra involved tapping into something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the curse activates, and that conversion is deeply unsettling because it is so emotional.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers in all regions can watch this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has gathered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, extending the thrill to thrill-seekers globally.


Avoid skipping this heart-stopping voyage through terror. Join *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to see these chilling revelations about existence.


For behind-the-scenes access, on-set glimpses, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar weaves Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, paired with franchise surges

Ranging from endurance-driven terror steeped in ancient scripture all the way to returning series and sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered in tandem with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors bookend the months with established lines, even as OTT services stack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is propelled by the carry from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween stays the prime week, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: 70s style chill, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens 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 plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

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 lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next fear lineup: next chapters, standalone ideas, alongside A Crowded Calendar aimed at chills

Dek The incoming horror slate crams early with a January pile-up, subsequently stretches through summer corridors, and running into the December corridor, fusing name recognition, new concepts, and data-minded offsets. Major distributors and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that position genre releases into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

The genre has become the sturdy option in studio calendars, a segment that can scale when it performs and still buffer the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 reminded buyers that lean-budget pictures can command mainstream conversation, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and slow-burn breakouts. The trend moved into 2025, where reawakened brands and prestige plays showed there is an opening for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The result for the 2026 slate is a schedule that appears tightly organized across players, with intentional bunching, a combination of familiar brands and new concepts, and a refocused attention on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now slots in as a wildcard on the release plan. The genre can debut on a wide range of weekends, deliver a quick sell for creative and shorts, and punch above weight with patrons that respond on preview nights and sustain through the second frame if the title fires. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration demonstrates conviction in that logic. The slate begins with a front-loaded January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a October build that reaches into All Hallows period and afterwards. The arrangement also spotlights the greater integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can platform a title, generate chatter, and broaden at the inflection point.

An added macro current is IP cultivation across linked properties and heritage properties. Distribution groups are not just releasing another next film. They are working to present brand continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a reframed mood or a casting choice that threads a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the same time, the helmers behind the top original plays are embracing material texture, on-set effects and grounded locations. That interplay delivers 2026 a healthy mix of recognition and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount defines the early cadence with two spotlight plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a nostalgia-forward mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push driven by classic imagery, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that evolves into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to bring back odd public stunts and quick hits that interlaces devotion and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working 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 preserves a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the first trailer. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are set up as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date creates space for Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel elevated on a lean spend. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror shock that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is marketing as a reimagined restart 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 sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign creative around setting detail, and practical creature work, elements that can increase PLF interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on minute detail and archaic language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that fortifies both premiere heat and trial spikes in the late-window. Prime Video will mix library titles with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using timely promos, fright rows, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays nimble about original films and festival grabs, locking in horror entries near their drops and staging as events launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a tiered of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown a willingness to take on select projects with award winners or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two brand extensions. 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 foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, elevated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a cinema-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has delivered for director-led genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception prompts. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap fan equity. The question, as ever, is overexposure. The near-term solution is to frame each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a new voice. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is known enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps announce the plan. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not preclude a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga signaled 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 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without dead zones.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued move toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which favor booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

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 tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. 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 rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film pleases 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 carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion becomes something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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 face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. 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 domestic haunting story that filters its scares through a young child’s unreliable inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: locked. Positioning: major-studio and star-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A spoof revival that teases hot-button genre motifs and true crime fervors. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household caught in old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

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

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and elemental menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming check my blog dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined 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 surface detail, sonics, and cinematography 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shudders sell the seats.