Mythic Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising chiller, launching October 2025 across major platforms

This blood-curdling spiritual shockfest from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an timeless dread when unfamiliar people become subjects in a malevolent trial. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping saga of overcoming and archaic horror that will reimagine genre cinema this harvest season. Realized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and tone-heavy thriller follows five individuals who awaken imprisoned in a wooded cottage under the sinister will of Kyra, a possessed female overtaken by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Anticipate to be seized by a screen-based presentation that intertwines visceral dread with mystical narratives, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a time-honored fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the spirits no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather deep within. This symbolizes the shadowy version of the group. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the tension becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between innocence and sin.


In a abandoned landscape, five adults find themselves isolated under the sinister effect and overtake of a shadowy female presence. As the ensemble becomes unable to deny her dominion, abandoned and pursued by evils inconceivable, they are obligated to deal with their emotional phantoms while the deathwatch unforgivingly pushes forward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust escalates and alliances erode, demanding each figure to doubt their core and the concept of liberty itself. The consequences mount with every heartbeat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that connects mystical fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to draw upon pure dread, an threat born of forgotten ages, emerging via soul-level flaws, and navigating a will that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something beneath mortal despair. She is blind until the control shifts, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for digital release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving horror lovers in all regions can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has earned over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, offering the tale to global fright lovers.


Tune in for this life-altering descent into hell. Face *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to see these haunting secrets about human nature.


For director insights, set experiences, and alerts from the creators, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





The horror genre’s major pivot: the 2025 cycle U.S. release slate weaves ancient-possession motifs, microbudget gut-punches, together with series shake-ups

Spanning survival horror steeped in old testament echoes and stretching into legacy revivals in concert with surgical indie voices, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated combined with precision-timed year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio powerhouses bookend the months with franchise anchors, at the same time digital services flood the fall with debut heat as well as old-world menace. In parallel, independent banners is riding the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are disciplined, accordingly 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner opens the year with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer winds down, the WB camp bows the concluding entry from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma driven plotting, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming 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 With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is an astute call. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next genre Year Ahead: returning titles, universe starters, and also A Crowded Calendar optimized for screams

Dek The incoming terror season crowds from the jump with a January glut, from there rolls through the summer months, and straight through the December corridor, mixing brand heft, novel approaches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on tight budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that turn genre releases into national conversation.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has solidified as the dependable tool in release plans, a space that can lift when it catches and still buffer the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 reminded executives that modestly budgeted chillers can drive the national conversation, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is a lane for a variety of tones, from returning installments to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across companies, with mapped-out bands, a mix of known properties and novel angles, and a re-energized focus on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Schedulers say the horror lane now acts as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can open on almost any weekend, yield a easy sell for teasers and reels, and outperform with audiences that show up on first-look nights and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the title lands. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping exhibits confidence in that engine. The slate starts with a busy January run, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that pushes into the fright window and beyond. The schedule also highlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across unified worlds and heritage properties. The studios are not just making another return. They are moving to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that announces a new tone or a cast configuration that anchors a next film to a classic era. At the very same time, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring in-camera technique, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That fusion offers 2026 a strong blend of trust and novelty, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent titles that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-centered film. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a heritage-honoring campaign without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on classic imagery, early character teases, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back 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 in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build mass reach through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick redirects to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from useful reference the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is crisp, melancholic, and big-hook: a grieving man installs an AI companion that escalates into a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to replay odd public stunts and quick hits that hybridizes affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele titles are positioned as signature events, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has established that a gnarly, in-camera leaning approach can feel prestige on a tight budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror surge that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around narrative world, and creature design, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror built on meticulous craft and dialect, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles feed copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a cadence that expands both initial urgency and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries closer to launch and eventizing arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in check my blog partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to useful reference firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception prompts. Watch for 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 as a pair, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind this year’s genre point to a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that withholds plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which are ideal for booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is full. Universal’s 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 heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth persists.

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

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can play the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion grows into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run 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 severe boss push to survive on a remote island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting premise that threads the dread through a young child’s uneven personal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: post-ready. Positioning: major-studio and headline-actor led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true-crime obsessions. Rating: pending. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a young family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming launches. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, making room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 value-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, right-sized allotments, 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 tactility, soundscape, and framing 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

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.