Ancient Dread Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, launching October 2025 across global platforms

One chilling occult terror film from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primeval evil when unfamiliar people become tools in a dark trial. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense depiction of living through and forgotten curse that will transform scare flicks this ghoul season. Produced by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and gothic feature follows five characters who come to confined in a remote cabin under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a possessed female consumed by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be ensnared by a filmic venture that combines deep-seated panic with ancient myths, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a time-honored trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is challenged when the demons no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the shadowy version of every character. The result is a relentless identity crisis where the tension becomes a relentless face-off between moral forces.


In a haunting natural abyss, five individuals find themselves isolated under the possessive force and control of a shadowy figure. As the victims becomes incapacitated to reject her grasp, detached and pursued by evils unnamable, they are obligated to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the countdown without pity draws closer toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension escalates and partnerships fracture, coercing each figure to examine their essence and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The hazard intensify with every passing moment, delivering a horror experience that combines otherworldly panic with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore pure dread, an entity beyond time, embedding itself in emotional vulnerability, and examining a power that dismantles free will when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant channeling something deeper than fear. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving users across the world can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first preview, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Don’t miss this haunted exploration of dread. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to confront these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For film updates, making-of footage, and insider scoops via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across entertainment pages and visit our spooky domain.





Contemporary horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 cycle U.S. release slate integrates myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from survivor-centric dread grounded in primordial scripture and stretching into legacy revivals alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured plus carefully orchestrated year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses lay down anchors by way of signature titles, even as streaming platforms stack the fall with new perspectives alongside mythic dread. On the festival side, the art-house flank is buoyed by the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are precise, and 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp opens the year with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a clear present-tense world. Under director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. dated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

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 defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

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, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold case horror anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. 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. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The 2026 terror release year: brand plays, standalone ideas, paired with A busy Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek: The new genre season builds up front with a January bottleneck, following that extends through the warm months, and carrying into the holiday frame, weaving series momentum, new concepts, and shrewd offsets. Studios with streamers are focusing on efficient budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and shareable marketing that position these films into all-audience topics.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has emerged as the most reliable counterweight in studio calendars, a segment that can grow when it catches and still insulate the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 signaled to top brass that mid-range entries can shape the discourse, the following year continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays underscored there is an opening for several lanes, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that play globally. The sum for the 2026 slate is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with clear date clusters, a balance of known properties and novel angles, and a renewed priority on big-screen windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital rental and digital services.

Insiders argue the category now functions as a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can premiere on open real estate, offer a sharp concept for trailers and TikTok spots, and overperform with demo groups that come out on opening previews and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the movie satisfies. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan reflects assurance in that engine. The calendar starts with a stacked January window, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that flows toward the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The calendar also features the ongoing integration of specialty arms and SVOD players that can develop over weeks, spark evangelism, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just pushing another installment. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that signals a reframed mood or a casting move that connects a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are favoring hands-on technique, real effects and distinct locales. That interplay hands 2026 a lively combination of known notes and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ sisters thread. Plan for a rollout leaning on iconic art, first images of characters, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with the Universal machine likely to revisit viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that fuses love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are set up as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning approach can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and navigate here textual fidelity, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both initial urgency and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix originals and festival snaps, slotting horror entries near launch and turning into events arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of precision releases and speedy platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is tight: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has delivered 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 firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a fresh helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and visionary-led titles provide the air. 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, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns outline the method. In 2023, a theater-first model that honored streaming windows did not stop a day-date try from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate telegraph a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Young & Cursed Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which fit with convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the range of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May load in summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss push to survive on a lonely island as the power balance shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. 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 piece that plays with the dread of a child’s mercurial senses. Rating: TBD. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal 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 parody return that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: underway. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. 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.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The dark-horse 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 unexpected breakout 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 pace and range. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 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 stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, audio design, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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, edit tight trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the fear sell the seats.