Primordial Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising thriller, landing October 2025 across leading streamers

This terrifying spiritual fright fest from screenwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an mythic fear when unfamiliar people become subjects in a devilish ceremony. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving story of survival and mythic evil that will redefine genre cinema this spooky time. Helmed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric feature follows five figures who wake up imprisoned in a hidden shack under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a cursed figure claimed by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Steel yourself to be immersed by a visual journey that fuses instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a legendary theme in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reimagined when the fiends no longer develop outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This illustrates the most terrifying corner of the players. The result is a emotionally raw internal warfare where the narrative becomes a brutal contest between virtue and vice.


In a haunting woodland, five campers find themselves caught under the ominous force and spiritual invasion of a mysterious female presence. As the characters becomes paralyzed to evade her grasp, isolated and hunted by powers unfathomable, they are thrust to confront their greatest panics while the hours unceasingly counts down toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and ties collapse, pushing each cast member to reflect on their core and the notion of conscious will itself. The tension rise with every short lapse, delivering a paranormal ride that merges demonic fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke pure dread, an force that existed before mankind, manipulating soul-level flaws, and exposing a being that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant channeling something unfamiliar to reason. She is innocent until the demon emerges, and that transition is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure horror lovers everywhere can survive this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original promo, which has been viewed over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, presenting the nightmare to a worldwide audience.


Avoid skipping this bone-rattling spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to face these nightmarish insights about the human condition.


For featurettes, behind-the-scenes content, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit our horror hub.





Modern horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets domestic schedule interlaces Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Moving from last-stand terror saturated with ancient scripture to series comebacks plus acutely observed indies, 2025 is tracking to be the most complex paired with carefully orchestrated year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses stabilize the year with franchise anchors, simultaneously digital services front-load the fall with debut heat and ancient terrors. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal Pictures kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. timed for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No heavy handed lore. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

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

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

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.

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

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

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

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next chiller slate: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, together with A Crowded Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek: The current genre slate loads from the jump with a January cluster, subsequently unfolds through peak season, and well into the winter holidays, mixing franchise firepower, inventive spins, and smart counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are betting on lean spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that convert the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent lever in studio calendars, a corner that can scale when it performs and still insulate the losses when it fails to connect. After 2023 re-taught buyers that disciplined-budget chillers can lead cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where resurrections and prestige plays underscored there is an opening for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with obvious clusters, a harmony of known properties and novel angles, and a refocused priority on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and digital services.

Planners observe the category now works like a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can open on almost any weekend, yield a sharp concept for marketing and shorts, and punch above weight with moviegoers that respond on Thursday previews and stick through the week two if the feature hits. Following a production delay era, the 2026 cadence shows trust in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a autumn push that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The calendar also includes the greater integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and go nationwide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across shared universes and legacy IP. Studios are not just releasing another return. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a star attachment that bridges a new entry to a initial period. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are prioritizing practical craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That convergence hands 2026 a confident blend of familiarity and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a nostalgia-forward campaign without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout anchored in legacy iconography, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will go after four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is clean, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to renew eerie street stunts and bite-size content that mixes attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets 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 public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an attention spike closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a tactile, physical-effects centered approach can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror shot that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around canon, and monster design, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fandom activation.

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 maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on historical precision and textual fidelity, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform plans for 2026 run on known playbooks. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a cadence that enhances both first-week urgency and sub growth in the later window. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with worldwide buys and limited runs in theaters when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library curation, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and featured rows to prolong the run on 2026 genre cume. Netflix retains agility about original films and festival grabs, locking in horror entries with shorter lead times and positioning as event drops launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a staged of focused cinema runs and accelerated platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to take on select projects with prestige directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway 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 tight: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, upgraded for modern sonics and picture. 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 positioned a traditional cinema play for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. 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 solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

Known brands versus new stories

By share, the 2026 slate skews toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-flavored turn from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps outline the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not prevent a dual release from working when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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, gives leeway to marketing to cross-link entries through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind this slate suggest a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the palette of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s AI companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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: Twin-shot 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

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

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s material craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting narrative that leverages the unease of a child’s fragile senses. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed and star-led ghost thriller.

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 needles hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. 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 breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a another family caught in long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 language and raw 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that decelerated or recalendared in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict 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 releases. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage repeatable beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

The slot calculus is real. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, offering breathing room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 search for sleepers 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Anticipate a robust 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 cadence and diversity. January is a spread, news February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, and camera work 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, Ready To Roar

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.