Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a chilling supernatural thriller, arriving October 2025 on top streaming platforms

An bone-chilling supernatural thriller from literary architect / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primordial horror when unknowns become conduits in a fiendish game. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of perseverance and age-old darkness that will remodel genre cinema this autumn. Directed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and gothic suspense flick follows five unknowns who snap to locked in a cut-off structure under the oppressive manipulation of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a millennia-old biblical force. Be warned to be enthralled by a screen-based event that weaves together instinctive fear with mystical narratives, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a recurring trope in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reversed when the malevolences no longer appear outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the grimmest version of these individuals. The result is a enthralling internal warfare where the events becomes a intense conflict between moral forces.


In a isolated wilderness, five friends find themselves stuck under the unholy sway and control of a shadowy apparition. As the victims becomes unresisting to escape her rule, exiled and hunted by forces mind-shattering, they are forced to wrestle with their inner demons while the final hour unforgivingly moves toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread amplifies and friendships dissolve, requiring each cast member to contemplate their values and the principle of independent thought itself. The consequences rise with every second, delivering a terror ride that weaves together spiritual fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to uncover basic terror, an force that predates humanity, influencing human fragility, and examining a curse that tests the soul when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that shift is shocking because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that subscribers internationally can survive this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has gathered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this heart-stopping path of possession. Confront *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to uncover these terrifying truths about free will.


For director insights, extra content, and alerts via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s tipping point: the year 2025 stateside slate weaves old-world possession, signature indie scares, plus series shake-ups

Spanning survival horror suffused with mythic scripture and including IP renewals as well as incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered and strategic year in recent memory.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. leading studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, at the same time streamers saturate the fall with fresh voices in concert with primordial unease. Meanwhile, independent banners is drafting behind the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as 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 arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director 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 the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming Horror release year: Sequels, non-franchise titles, together with A packed Calendar calibrated for chills

Dek The new scare calendar clusters at the outset with a January traffic jam, before it extends through summer corridors, and running into the festive period, balancing name recognition, novel approaches, and calculated alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that turn these offerings into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has solidified as the bankable tool in release strategies, a category that can break out when it connects and still mitigate the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can dominate the discourse, the following year kept energy high with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The tailwind pushed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays demonstrated there is demand for multiple flavors, from returning installments to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across companies, with intentional bunching, a combination of brand names and original hooks, and a refocused eye on box-office windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the category now acts as a wildcard on the programming map. The genre can kick off on many corridors, supply a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and outperform with crowds that come out on Thursday previews and stay strong through the next pass if the film hits. Coming out of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 pattern telegraphs trust in that setup. The year begins with a front-loaded January band, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall cadence that carries into spooky season and into the next week. The gridline also highlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, create conversation, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is brand curation across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just turning out another return. They are seeking to position continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a logo package that conveys a re-angled tone or a casting choice that anchors a new entry to a early run. At the same time, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are returning to material texture, practical effects and distinct locales. That mix offers 2026 a vital pairing of brand comfort and invention, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two high-profile titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the heart, setting it up as both a relay and a return-to-roots character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach telegraphs a fan-service aware treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push centered on signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that threads longing and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an Check This Out untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His entries are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to dominate 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Position this as a red-band summer horror surge that leans hard into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror driven by careful craft and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s horror titles head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that fortifies both launch urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using prominent placements, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival snaps, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of precision releases and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a big-screen first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to move out. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By share, 2026 favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices move the needle 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 positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the bundle is known enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

The last three-year set frame the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which favor expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that foreground pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that shine in top rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. 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 menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late winter and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive 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 run their PLF course.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss claw to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that pipes the unease through a youngster’s volatile perspective. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly 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 parody return that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 bursts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household caught in older hauntings. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 fear. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 value-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundscape, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.