Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across top digital platforms

This eerie metaphysical terror film from storyteller / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primeval dread when passersby become conduits in a hellish experiment. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving tale of resilience and archaic horror that will reshape terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Helmed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic fearfest follows five characters who are stirred stuck in a off-grid lodge under the dark dominion of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a 2,000-year-old sacrosanct terror. Get ready to be immersed by a audio-visual event that integrates bodily fright with arcane tradition, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a time-honored element in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is turned on its head when the malevolences no longer come from external sources, but rather through their own souls. This marks the most sinister dimension of the victims. The result is a emotionally raw emotional conflict where the conflict becomes a brutal fight between light and darkness.


In a bleak terrain, five souls find themselves imprisoned under the dark dominion and haunting of a elusive female figure. As the protagonists becomes unable to break her power, detached and attacked by terrors beyond comprehension, they are compelled to endure their core terrors while the countdown brutally moves toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion intensifies and relationships splinter, urging each cast member to reconsider their identity and the integrity of personal agency itself. The cost grow with every minute, delivering a nightmarish journey that intertwines spiritual fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into core terror, an entity from ancient eras, channeling itself through emotional fractures, and confronting a presence that tests the soul when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is uninformed until the possession kicks in, and that evolution is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving fans anywhere can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, exporting the fear to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this heart-stopping descent into hell. Stream *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to survive these fearful discoveries about human nature.


For sneak peeks, production news, and reveals directly from production, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 U.S. calendar fuses legend-infused possession, independent shockers, plus brand-name tremors

Spanning survivor-centric dread rooted in ancient scripture to returning series and focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become the richest plus strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, in parallel digital services pack the fall with new voices paired with mythic dread. On another front, the artisan tier is catching the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: Economy, maximum dread

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

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly 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, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one digs into 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 an astute call. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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 oncoming fear slate: Sequels, new stories, plus A packed Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The upcoming horror year lines up immediately with a January glut, thereafter rolls through the summer months, and carrying into the holiday stretch, weaving IP strength, fresh ideas, and well-timed counter-scheduling. Studios and platforms are prioritizing lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that turn the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror has grown into the dependable option in release strategies, a space that can surge when it hits and still mitigate the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 reassured executives that responsibly budgeted pictures can steer cultural conversation, the following year maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and unexpected risers. The upswing carried into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles proved there is room for varied styles, from series extensions to filmmaker-driven originals that scale internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a roster that is strikingly coherent across players, with defined corridors, a equilibrium of known properties and new pitches, and a re-energized attention on release windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and OTT platforms.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now performs as a plug-and-play option on the programming map. The genre can roll out on virtually any date, furnish a quick sell for previews and shorts, and outstrip with demo groups that arrive on advance nights and stick through the next pass if the offering pays off. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration telegraphs confidence in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a loaded January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while keeping space for a late-year stretch that connects to the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The map also reflects the continuing integration of specialty distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and broaden at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The studios are not just releasing another return. They are shaping as brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that ties a incoming chapter to a early run. At the in tandem, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are championing physical effects work, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two prominent plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a relay and a heritage-centered character-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a legacy-leaning mode without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign fueled by signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue wide buzz through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick this website adjustments to whatever drives the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear plays. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is efficient, melancholic, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an digital partner that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and short-cut promos that blurs romance and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are marketed as marquee events, with a hinting teaser and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, on-set effects led mix can feel premium on a controlled budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that embraces overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio launches two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges 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 explicit mandate to serve both fans and casuals. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can increase premium format interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. The studio’s horror films land on copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a stair-step that optimizes both opening-weekend urgency and viewer acquisition in the tail. Prime Video stitches together outside acquisitions with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival wins, slotting horror entries tight to release and eventizing launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror great post to read on a curated basis. The platform has indicated interest to secure select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a big-screen first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit brand equity. The watch-out, as ever, is fatigue. The operating solution is to pitch each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a European tilt from a ascendant talent. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects bring the oxygen. 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, features Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps frame the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a day-date try from delivering when the brand was strong. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds 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 filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films forecast a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a this website stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and medieval diction, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease 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 gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-aware reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which fit with fan-con activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that work in PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Post-January through spring seed summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

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 take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s synthetic partner evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 struggle to survive on a isolated island as the control balance inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 family-home haunting premise that threads the dread through a little one’s unreliable point of view. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-scale and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

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 parody return that targets modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a different family entangled with past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces define this lineup. First, production that decelerated or migrated in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

The slot calculus is real. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 sleeper-hit hunt 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 use those gaps. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.