Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One hair-raising occult fright fest from narrative craftsman / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an mythic terror when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a satanic ceremony. Available October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of endurance and timeless dread that will alter fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and atmospheric feature follows five people who come to ensnared in a secluded wooden structure under the aggressive grip of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Get ready to be ensnared by a big screen experience that combines raw fear with ancestral stories, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is turned on its head when the monsters no longer arise externally, but rather inside them. This marks the shadowy part of each of them. The result is a harrowing spiritual tug-of-war where the story becomes a merciless face-off between righteousness and malevolence.


In a remote wilderness, five youths find themselves cornered under the ghastly aura and overtake of a mysterious person. As the group becomes incapable to oppose her grasp, abandoned and followed by presences unnamable, they are cornered to deal with their inner horrors while the time harrowingly counts down toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust intensifies and friendships erode, driving each participant to question their values and the foundation of conscious will itself. The intensity escalate with every heartbeat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that weaves together demonic fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to awaken primitive panic, an malevolence older than civilization itself, working through our weaknesses, and questioning a evil that peels away humanity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra needed manifesting something darker than pain. She is insensitive until the control shifts, and that metamorphosis is soul-crushing because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering fans around the globe can face this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has gathered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, giving access to the movie to scare fans abroad.


Mark your calendar for this haunted voyage through terror. Stream *Young & Cursed* this launch day to witness these terrifying truths about inner darkness.


For cast commentary, production news, and insider scoops from the story's source, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your favorite networks and visit the official website.





American horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 stateside slate interlaces Mythic Possession, independent shockers, together with series shake-ups

Moving from life-or-death fear inspired by legendary theology and onward to IP renewals together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned paired with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with known properties, concurrently streaming platforms pack the fall with fresh voices alongside old-world menace. At the same time, independent banners is catching the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are calculated, which means 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Helmed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

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

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 chiller year to come: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A Crowded Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek The fresh genre season builds from the jump with a January pile-up, after that unfolds through the warm months, and carrying into the year-end corridor, balancing brand equity, inventive spins, and well-timed counterweight. Studios and platforms are embracing smart costs, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that pivot horror entries into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has become the most reliable release in programming grids, a segment that can grow when it catches and still protect the drawdown when it falls short. After 2023 proved to studio brass that cost-conscious pictures can galvanize the national conversation, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The trend rolled into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is room for several lanes, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the field, with clear date clusters, a combination of familiar brands and untested plays, and a re-energized eye on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now operates like a wildcard on the slate. The genre can bow on open real estate, create a tight logline for trailers and platform-native cuts, and outperform with crowds that turn out on early shows and hold through the subsequent weekend if the release delivers. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores assurance in that logic. The slate begins with a front-loaded January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a fall cadence that connects to Halloween and afterwards. The calendar also shows the ongoing integration of specialty arms and SVOD players that can grow from platform, generate chatter, and widen at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. The studios are not just releasing another follow-up. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a refreshed voice or a casting move that threads a new installment to a heyday. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the marquee originals are embracing practical craft, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That pairing affords 2026 a solid mix of recognition and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline titles that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a heritage-honoring angle without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave built on franchise iconography, early character teases, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man activates an AI companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that hybridizes romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are framed as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second beat that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a in-your-face, hands-on effects style can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that fortifies both launch urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using featured rows, fright rows, and featured rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival deals, confirming horror entries closer to launch and staging as events go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, updated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to move out. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Look for 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 jointly, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The risk, as ever, is overexposure. The standing approach is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the assembly is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps help explain the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a hybrid test from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and grow scope. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

Production craft signals

The shop talk behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that elevates tone and tension rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which fit with convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that explode in larger rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is packed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can play the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 prickly boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a preteen’s flickering inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family bound to ancient dread. 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 lean toward survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: undetermined. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. 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 primordial 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: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-sequenced in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where have a peek at these guys 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 shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, 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 seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and visuals 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, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.