Ancient Evil Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked supernatural thriller, launching Oct 2025 on major platforms

An terrifying occult terror film from storyteller / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primordial curse when passersby become pawns in a malevolent trial. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of resistance and old world terror that will revamp horror this season. Brought to life by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and moody tale follows five young adults who emerge stranded in a unreachable hideaway under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Brace yourself to be seized by a narrative adventure that blends bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a legendary pillar in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is challenged when the malevolences no longer develop from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This mirrors the most terrifying element of the group. The result is a intense mind game where the conflict becomes a brutal clash between light and darkness.


In a unforgiving no-man's-land, five campers find themselves confined under the unholy sway and overtake of a shadowy being. As the survivors becomes paralyzed to combat her influence, left alone and tracked by evils beyond comprehension, they are driven to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the clock ruthlessly counts down toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion escalates and friendships dissolve, urging each cast member to contemplate their existence and the idea of autonomy itself. The hazard surge with every tick, delivering a terror ride that intertwines otherworldly suspense with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel raw dread, an threat from ancient eras, influencing emotional vulnerability, and wrestling with a power that erodes the self when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra asked for exploring something past sanity. She is insensitive until the curse activates, and that evolution is gut-wrenching because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing watchers from coast to coast can get immersed in this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has garnered over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Make sure to see this mind-warping descent into darkness. Face *Young & Cursed* this launch day to see these dark realities about free will.


For behind-the-scenes access, production insights, and updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official website.





U.S. horror’s tipping point: calendar year 2025 American release plan blends ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

From fight-to-live nightmare stories suffused with old testament echoes and including returning series in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated plus strategic year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Top studios hold down the year with known properties, while SVOD players flood the fall with new perspectives plus old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is buoyed by the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with a bold swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror resurges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Laurels convert to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

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

Season Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 Horror year to come: continuations, filmmaker-first projects, and also A Crowded Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek The brand-new scare cycle packs early with a January wave, from there spreads through summer corridors, and running into the festive period, balancing IP strength, novel approaches, and savvy release strategy. Distributors with platforms are embracing mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and social-driven marketing that transform these films into all-audience topics.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the dependable tool in distribution calendars, a segment that can expand when it lands and still buffer the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 signaled to top brass that efficiently budgeted scare machines can lead social chatter, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The energy flowed into 2025, where reawakened brands and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is an opening for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that carry overseas. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that appears tightly organized across studios, with obvious clusters, a pairing of household franchises and new pitches, and a recommitted stance on big-screen windows that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and subscription services.

Schedulers say the horror lane now acts as a utility player on the distribution slate. Horror can kick off on virtually any date, create a clear pitch for creative and platform-native cuts, and outpace with demo groups that turn out on first-look nights and stick through the next weekend if the feature hits. After a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 mapping shows faith in that dynamic. The year launches with a front-loaded January window, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a autumn stretch that connects to Halloween and past the holiday. The schedule also features the deeper integration of indie arms and home platforms that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and scale up at the proper time.

An added macro current is brand management across shared universes and legacy IP. Studios are not just releasing another next film. They are looking to package brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a recalibrated tone or a casting pivot that reconnects a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the alongside this, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That blend provides the 2026 slate a solid mix of trust and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two marquee entries that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the core, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a classic-referencing strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with franchise iconography, initial cast looks, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick switches to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that evolves into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to iterate on creepy live activations and brief clips that hybridizes longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are set up as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame allows Universal to own 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, makeup-driven treatment can feel big on a mid-range budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror jolt that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is selling as a reset 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 directive to serve both longtime followers and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build marketing units around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can stoke premium screens and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by careful craft and period speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that elevates both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed films with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in archive usage, using seasonal hubs, fright rows, and staff picks to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries closer to launch and eventizing arrivals with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building 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 proposition is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries deliver 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, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is steady enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Three-year comps clarify the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not deter a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was trusted. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reframe POV and scale the storytelling. 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 consecutively, lets marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind these films forecast a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a first look 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 geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which favor expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that elevate precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes 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 formidable, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance turns and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting story that threads the dread through a little one’s uneven subjective view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed and marquee-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A spoof revival that targets modern genre fads and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll 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 detonates, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography 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 opens again, with a unlucky family bound to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

The slot calculus is real. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, horror ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 press those advantages. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, 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 gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, acoustics, 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 Shapes Up Strong

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.