Antediluvian Horror surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled thriller, premiering October 2025 across premium platforms

A blood-curdling paranormal thriller from creator / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient entity when unrelated individuals become tokens in a dark ritual. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of living through and primordial malevolence that will redefine terror storytelling this ghoul season. Helmed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and moody feature follows five individuals who arise isolated in a unreachable hideaway under the malevolent influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl dominated by a ancient biblical demon. Be warned to be enthralled by a immersive display that integrates gut-punch terror with spiritual backstory, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a mainstay element in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is challenged when the malevolences no longer emerge externally, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the haunting version of the cast. The result is a gripping mental war where the drama becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between right and wrong.


In a desolate landscape, five souls find themselves caught under the possessive force and haunting of a uncanny person. As the ensemble becomes submissive to withstand her grasp, severed and hunted by presences beyond comprehension, they are required to encounter their soulful dreads while the final hour unceasingly counts down toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and connections fracture, requiring each survivor to question their existence and the principle of personal agency itself. The stakes amplify with every breath, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines ghostly evil with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover pure dread, an curse before modern man, feeding on human fragility, and confronting a spirit that challenges autonomy when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is blind until the evil takes hold, and that transition is emotionally raw because it is so private.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering horror lovers in all regions can get immersed in this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has earned over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, exporting the fear to horror fans worldwide.


Tune in for this soul-jarring fall into madness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these nightmarish insights about the psyche.


For cast commentary, filmmaker commentary, and press updates from the creators, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit our film’s homepage.





American horror’s sea change: the 2025 cycle domestic schedule braids together primeval-possession lore, indie terrors, alongside franchise surges

Running from endurance-driven terror drawn from near-Eastern lore to IP renewals paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the most variegated paired with deliberate year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios lock in tentpoles through proven series, even as SVOD players prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and archetypal fear. On another front, independent banners is riding the echoes of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s schedule fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Booked into mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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 terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

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

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 terror release year: Sequels, universe starters, and also A loaded Calendar geared toward screams

Dek: The arriving scare slate packs immediately with a January cluster, thereafter stretches through June and July, and pushing into the holiday frame, balancing marquee clout, fresh ideas, and savvy offsets. Studios with streamers are leaning into cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and short-form initiatives that pivot the slate’s entries into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has established itself as the surest play in studio slates, a category that can surge when it catches and still insulate the drag when it underperforms. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize pop culture, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The momentum moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is room for different modes, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the market, with planned clusters, a mix of recognizable IP and new packages, and a sharpened stance on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and home streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, supply a simple premise for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with patrons that arrive on Thursday previews and continue through the follow-up frame if the release lands. Emerging from a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 setup signals conviction in that playbook. The calendar kicks off with a weighty January schedule, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a autumn push that connects to late October and into post-Halloween. The map also highlights the expanded integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can stage a platform run, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is series management across shared IP webs and storied titles. The players are not just turning out another return. They are looking to package lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that signals a reframed mood or a casting choice that threads a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the top original plays are embracing real-world builds, real effects and vivid settings. That fusion produces 2026 a vital pairing of comfort and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two headline releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the focus, presenting it as both a relay and a return-to-roots character piece. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a heritage-honoring campaign without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a trailer cadence hitting 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will emphasize. As a summer relief option, this one will drive broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, grief-rooted, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an intelligent companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s campaign likely to recreate strange in-person beats and micro spots that interlaces longing and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are branded as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a second wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to own 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a gnarly, in-camera leaning mix can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror jolt that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, continuing a bankable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to useful reference serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around lore, and monster design, elements that can boost PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases window into copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that boosts both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the tail. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival acquisitions, timing horror entries near their drops and turning into events releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is direct: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, modernized for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a big-screen first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to open out. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror 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 reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Anticipate 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 as partners, using mini theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is familiar enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

The last three-year set make sense of the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not preclude a day-date move from hitting when the brand was powerful. In 2024, auteur craft horror rose in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reorient and widen scale. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature execution and sets, which match well with con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that emphasize hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the spread of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can deliver 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 shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s AI companion escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 meet a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 scramble to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting piece that twists the chill of a child’s shaky point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a another family linked to old terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: proceeding. 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 time-true diction and elemental fear. Rating: TBD. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will jostle across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

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

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, 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 surface detail, sound, 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.