Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

An blood-curdling unearthly suspense story from cinematographer / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an forgotten curse when outsiders become puppets in a diabolical ordeal. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping chronicle of struggle and timeless dread that will resculpt the fear genre this fall. Created by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick feature follows five people who arise stuck in a isolated shelter under the aggressive will of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a legendary religious nightmare. Be prepared to be drawn in by a audio-visual spectacle that fuses instinctive fear with timeless legends, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reversed when the fiends no longer manifest externally, but rather within themselves. This illustrates the grimmest facet of each of them. The result is a riveting inner struggle where the story becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between good and evil.


In a barren backcountry, five characters find themselves isolated under the unholy dominion and curse of a mysterious person. As the cast becomes powerless to escape her command, marooned and preyed upon by entities ungraspable, they are driven to endure their core terrors while the final hour unceasingly ticks onward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion escalates and ties shatter, pressuring each person to doubt their essence and the philosophy of decision-making itself. The pressure intensify with every short lapse, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends supernatural terror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to channel elemental fright, an power beyond time, embedding itself in soul-level flaws, and dealing with a power that redefines identity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra needed manifesting something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that transition is haunting because it is so personal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure customers in all regions can dive into this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has pulled in over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Experience this mind-warping spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to acknowledge these dark realities about the human condition.


For bonus footage, making-of footage, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YACFilm across fan hubs and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season domestic schedule interlaces legend-infused possession, microbudget gut-punches, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with life-or-death fear infused with primordial scripture to franchise returns as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the most textured and precision-timed year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners stabilize the year by way of signature titles, concurrently streamers prime the fall with discovery plays together with primordial unease. On the festival side, the artisan tier is surfing the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the base, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s distribution arm begins the calendar with a bold swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: 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, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and those signature textures resurface: 70s style chill, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. 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.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
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 reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: 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. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming fright slate: next chapters, fresh concepts, And A brimming Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The arriving horror season loads in short order with a January bottleneck, before it spreads through the warm months, and well into the holiday stretch, marrying series momentum, inventive spins, and data-minded offsets. Studios and streamers are embracing right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that convert these pictures into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the predictable release in studio lineups, a genre that can scale when it hits and still protect the downside when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that mid-range fright engines can steer the national conversation, 2024 maintained heat with director-led heat and unexpected risers. The upswing rolled into 2025, where revivals and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is capacity for several lanes, from franchise continuations to original features that resonate abroad. The net effect for 2026 is a calendar that shows rare alignment across the market, with mapped-out bands, a mix of household franchises and new packages, and a re-energized eye on box-office windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium rental and streaming.

Marketers add the category now behaves like a swing piece on the rollout map. The genre can bow on virtually any date, provide a clear pitch for spots and reels, and outpace with viewers that respond on previews Thursday and sustain through the second weekend if the entry works. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern indicates certainty in that model. The calendar rolls out with a stacked January band, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall cadence that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The layout also illustrates the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across interlocking continuities and established properties. The companies are not just turning out another continuation. They are shaping as brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting move that threads a next film to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are celebrating in-camera technique, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a solid mix of comfort and newness, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, presenting it as both a succession moment and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a heritage-honoring angle without repeating the last two entries’ sisters thread. Watch for a push rooted in franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever defines the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, heartbroken, and premise-first: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that mutates into a lethal partner. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to echo eerie street stunts and micro spots that melds love and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s work are have a peek here sold as event films, with a minimalist tease and a later trailer push that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The prime October weekend gives the studio room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has made clear that a tactile, practical-effects forward style can feel big on a tight budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror surge that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio places two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, continuing a steady supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is calling a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both devotees and novices. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can stoke PLF interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in careful craft and language, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Digital platform strategies

Platform plans for 2026 run on established tracks. The studio’s horror films land on copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that optimizes both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up momentum in the tail. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with global acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using curated hubs, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about first-party entries and festival wins, slotting horror entries tight to release and turning into events launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of targeted theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that turns chatter to conversion. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to secure select projects with prestige directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 arc with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur see here track with Werwulf, guiding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By skew, 2026 favors the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps outline the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not hamper a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind the year’s horror indicate a continued tilt toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta reframe that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in fan-con activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. 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 quiet contrast amid marquee brands. The month buttons 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 thick, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production have a peek here continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion becomes something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric game 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 tough boss push to survive on a remote island as the control dynamic tilts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s practical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting premise that interrogates the fear of a child’s tricky perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-financed and star-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 the creative mix. Logline: {A satire sequel that satirizes modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 erupts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: to be announced. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 antique diction and elemental menace. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that downshifted or reshuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, creating valuable space for genre entries that can command a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will cluster across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

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 gets visceral, 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 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, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, audio design, and imagery 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.

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.