Mythic Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

This hair-raising spiritual scare-fest from author / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an timeless curse when foreigners become subjects in a demonic game. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing account of living through and old world terror that will revamp the horror genre this harvest season. Produced by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and shadowy film follows five young adults who emerge stuck in a wooded cottage under the malignant will of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a millennia-old biblical demon. Get ready to be seized by a narrative journey that merges gut-punch terror with ancient myths, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic tradition in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is turned on its head when the demons no longer develop from a different plane, but rather inside them. This suggests the grimmest element of the cast. The result is a enthralling identity crisis where the emotions becomes a unforgiving contest between innocence and sin.


In a haunting wilderness, five individuals find themselves contained under the ghastly grip and domination of a secretive spirit. As the ensemble becomes submissive to withstand her curse, exiled and attacked by evils unimaginable, they are cornered to endure their greatest panics while the final hour harrowingly strikes toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension escalates and links splinter, prompting each soul to question their existence and the idea of self-determination itself. The threat accelerate with every beat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that connects ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to dig into primal fear, an threat older than civilization itself, manifesting in soul-level flaws, and exposing a darkness that challenges autonomy when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra needed manifesting something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that flip is deeply unsettling because it is so internal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing users across the world can face this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has collected over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, bringing the film to scare fans abroad.


Witness this unforgettable descent into darkness. Face *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these unholy truths about our species.


For featurettes, making-of footage, and announcements from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit our horror hub.





Today’s horror sea change: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts blends primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, paired with brand-name tremors

Ranging from endurance-driven terror infused with legendary theology and stretching into franchise returns together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become the most stratified along with calculated campaign year of the last decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. major banners lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, in tandem platform operators pack the fall with emerging auteurs plus mythic dread. On the festival side, the independent cohort is fueled by the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, notably this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are precise, which means 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: The Return of Prestige Fear

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. 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. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a sealed box body horror arc starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The upcoming fright cycle: continuations, filmmaker-first projects, and also A busy Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek The new scare cycle lines up at the outset with a January cluster, following that carries through June and July, and running into the holiday frame, marrying brand heft, original angles, and data-minded calendar placement. Distributors with platforms are committing to lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and shareable marketing that position horror entries into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has become the most reliable swing in release plans, a lane that can grow when it hits and still insulate the downside when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reminded strategy teams that efficiently budgeted entries can drive the zeitgeist, the following year kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and slow-burn breakouts. The carry carried into 2025, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries underscored there is a lane for a spectrum, from sequel tracks to filmmaker-driven originals that travel well. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a schedule that reads highly synchronized across the industry, with obvious clusters, a pairing of known properties and untested plays, and a renewed priority on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now acts as a plug-and-play option on the grid. Horror can roll out on a wide range of weekends, furnish a easy sell for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with demo groups that appear on advance nights and hold through the subsequent weekend if the film fires. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 configuration reflects certainty in that engine. The year commences with a stacked January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a autumn push that carries into Halloween and into the next week. The layout also highlights the ongoing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can grow from platform, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A companion trend is brand strategy across ongoing universes and established properties. Studio teams are not just turning out another entry. They are trying to present lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that indicates a recalibrated tone or a ensemble decision that ties a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the same time, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are doubling down on hands-on technique, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That fusion delivers 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and surprise, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight plays that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a relay and a DNA-forward character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a heritage-honoring strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected stacked with signature symbols, first images of characters, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate mainstream recognition through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tidy, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an algorithmic mate that shifts into a dangerous lover. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with the studio’s marketing likely to revisit uncanny live moments and snackable content that interweaves affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are branded as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a raw, on-set effects led style can feel big on a disciplined budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror shot that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around narrative world, and practical creature work, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that expands both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video blends licensed films with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, fright rows, and staff picks to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival grabs, confirming horror entries tight to release and making event-like go-lives with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is no-nonsense: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to broaden. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Anticipate 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 as a pair, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tips toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit household recognition. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a fresh helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent comps announce the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that underscores aura and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, my company meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

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 heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the variety of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate turns into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 confront a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan navigate to this website O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance turns and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting story that toys with the fear of a child’s wobbly senses. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and name-above-title spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satirical comeback that targets in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family have a peek at this web-site and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, 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 target range. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, and image-making 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.