Mythic Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, bowing October 2025 on top streamers

This chilling ghostly fear-driven tale from writer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an prehistoric curse when guests become puppets in a hellish maze. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching depiction of endurance and prehistoric entity that will reshape scare flicks this October. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic thriller follows five strangers who come to locked in a wooded house under the unfriendly manipulation of Kyra, a female lead claimed by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Ready yourself to be hooked by a immersive spectacle that integrates instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a well-established pillar in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is inverted when the fiends no longer come from an outside force, but rather internally. This echoes the most sinister dimension of the group. The result is a emotionally raw spiritual tug-of-war where the plotline becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between innocence and sin.


In a bleak woodland, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the evil grip and haunting of a enigmatic female presence. As the group becomes powerless to combat her manipulation, marooned and tracked by entities unnamable, they are made to reckon with their soulful dreads while the hours without pause ticks onward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion rises and relationships dissolve, compelling each survivor to question their true nature and the nature of conscious will itself. The risk rise with every short lapse, delivering a cinematic nightmare that connects paranormal dread with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to tap into raw dread, an threat rooted in antiquity, working through emotional vulnerability, and examining a being that forces self-examination when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the evil takes hold, and that transition is soul-crushing because it is so deep.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering watchers no matter where they are can face this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, delivering the story to a global viewership.


Don’t miss this visceral exploration of dread. Enter *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to face these dark realities about the soul.


For director insights, extra content, and updates from behind the lens, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie’s homepage.





Horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate Mixes archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from ancient scripture and extending to canon extensions and acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered along with precision-timed year in years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors plant stakes across the year using marquee IP, while subscription platforms saturate the fall with discovery plays alongside mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is fueled by the momentum of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner fires the first shot with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

At summer’s close, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

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

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror returns
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

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

Theaters are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Projection: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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 wrestle for room. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 terror Year Ahead: installments, Originals, together with A stacked Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The current terror calendar stacks in short order with a January cluster, from there unfolds through the mid-year, and carrying into the year-end corridor, balancing name recognition, fresh ideas, and smart offsets. Major distributors and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that turn the slate’s entries into national conversation.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has shown itself to be the most reliable tool in programming grids, a pillar that can break out when it performs and still cushion the floor when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught top brass that modestly budgeted scare machines can galvanize cultural conversation, the following year continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and sleeper breakouts. The run pushed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and filmmaker-prestige bets signaled there is a lane for different modes, from brand follow-ups to standalone ideas that travel well. The end result for 2026 is a slate that shows rare alignment across the major shops, with intentional bunching, a mix of brand names and new packages, and a revived eye on exclusive windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and platforms.

Marketers add the space now serves as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, generate a easy sell for marketing and short-form placements, and over-index with audiences that appear on first-look nights and return through the sophomore frame if the entry hits. Post a production delay era, the 2026 cadence exhibits confidence in that equation. The year opens with a busy January band, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a autumn push that pushes into All Hallows period and afterwards. The layout also includes the continuing integration of specialty arms and streamers that can build gradually, build word of mouth, and expand at the inflection point.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just releasing another continuation. They are trying to present continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a new tone or a casting choice that connects a next film to a classic era. At the parallel to that, the directors behind the top original plays are leaning into practical craft, practical effects and location-forward worlds. That pairing gives 2026 a healthy mix of home base and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two high-profile releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character study. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a classic-referencing treatment without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave centered on legacy iconography, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will go after broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever tops pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that mutates into a perilous partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to revisit creepy live activations and micro spots that fuses devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a public title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to command 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, practical-first approach can feel premium on a efficient spend. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that leans into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio places two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is selling as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both franchise faithful and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can increase premium screens and fan-forward engagement.

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 extends Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by historical precision and textual fidelity, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed titles with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using timely promos, horror hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival additions, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and elevating as drops launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchise entries versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate favors the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a Francophone tone from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to thread films through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind this slate foreshadow a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which match well with convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 quiet contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now sustains 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unsettled 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 fight to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance flips and his comment is here suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

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 dread, founded on Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting premise that interrogates the unease of a child’s uncertain interpretations. Rating: TBD. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that teases contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-core horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or reshuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, creating valuable space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. 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 this content supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, Young & Cursed May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, 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 texture, acoustics, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.