Age-old Dread stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

This chilling mystic thriller from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primeval dread when foreigners become pawns in a fiendish ceremony. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a intense tale of living through and age-old darkness that will resculpt fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Directed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and tone-heavy tale follows five young adults who come to caught in a wooded shelter under the ominous control of Kyra, a central character consumed by a 2,000-year-old holy text monster. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a big screen display that weaves together primitive horror with ancestral stories, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a iconic theme in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the dark entities no longer descend outside the characters, but rather from their core. This symbolizes the shadowy facet of these individuals. The result is a edge-of-seat identity crisis where the conflict becomes a merciless tug-of-war between moral forces.


In a bleak wild, five youths find themselves confined under the malevolent control and domination of a haunted figure. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to oppose her command, marooned and tormented by presences mind-shattering, they are compelled to confront their greatest panics while the deathwatch coldly counts down toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and friendships collapse, urging each participant to challenge their values and the nature of freedom of choice itself. The intensity magnify with every instant, delivering a terror ride that blends supernatural terror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to draw upon instinctual horror, an entity beyond time, emerging via our fears, and confronting a evil that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is clueless until the evil takes hold, and that metamorphosis is gut-wrenching because it is so emotional.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing horror lovers from coast to coast can watch this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its initial teaser, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this mind-warping spiral into evil. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to face these evil-rooted truths about mankind.


For previews, production news, and updates directly from production, follow @YACFilm across your favorite networks and visit the film’s website.





Today’s horror tipping point: the year 2025 stateside slate Mixes biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, together with Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with survival horror suffused with old testament echoes and stretching into returning series set beside keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become the most textured plus precision-timed year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios bookend the months through proven series, while streaming platforms prime the fall with debut heat in concert with old-world menace. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is fueled by the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal camp kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: 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. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The ante is higher this round, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

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

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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



The 2026 spook cycle: continuations, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror season stacks from day one with a January cluster, from there unfolds through peak season, and well into the holidays, marrying brand heft, new concepts, and strategic release strategy. Studios and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that frame genre titles into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the bankable play in distribution calendars, a category that can grow when it hits and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget entries can drive the national conversation, 2024 carried the beat with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The trend rolled into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and awards-minded projects proved there is a lane for a variety of tones, from brand follow-ups to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with defined corridors, a equilibrium of marquee IP and untested plays, and a reinvigorated attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital and streaming.

Buyers contend the space now functions as a swing piece on the grid. The genre can premiere on virtually any date, offer a clear pitch for teasers and vertical videos, and over-index with audiences that lean in on opening previews and hold through the second weekend if the movie delivers. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout demonstrates assurance in that dynamic. The slate kicks off with a loaded January schedule, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall run that carries into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The gridline also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can stage a platform run, build word of mouth, and expand at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across linked properties and classic IP. The companies are not just turning out another continuation. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that suggests a tonal shift or a star attachment that connects a new entry to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into in-camera technique, on-set effects and specific settings. That mix produces the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and invention, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two high-profile releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a nostalgia-forward mode without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also revives 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 in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive mainstream recognition through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever drives the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an AI companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s campaign likely to echo eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that fuses affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an headline beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, his comment is here a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are positioned as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to take 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven aesthetic can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror jolt that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio places two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is presenting as a new take 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 charge to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can boost 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 extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that elevates both launch urgency and sign-up momentum in the later phase. Prime Video continues to mix catalogue additions with world buys and brief theater runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in archive usage, using curated hubs, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival snaps, timing horror entries on shorter runways and making event-like drops with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a two-step of focused cinema runs and accelerated platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with award winners or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules 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 intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a theatrical rollout for the title, an good sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday frame to move out. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, the 2026 slate tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to package each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a continental coloration from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the team and cast is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps frame the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that preserved streaming windows did not stop a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was trusted. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers tone and tension rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and department features before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with convention floor stunts and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid headline IP. The month concludes 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 tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genome. 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 grieving man’s synthetic partner escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss try to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power inverts and dread encroaches. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that teases the unease of a child’s mercurial impressions. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. navigate to this website Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at modern genre fads and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. 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 erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBA. 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: to be announced. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. 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 period language and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient screen counts, 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 tactility, sonics, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job useful reference is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.