Primordial Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked thriller, landing October 2025 across top streamers

One hair-raising ghostly horror tale from cinematographer / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primeval fear when passersby become conduits in a devilish trial. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping episode of overcoming and mythic evil that will remodel fear-driven cinema this autumn. Crafted by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive suspense flick follows five figures who are stirred sealed in a off-grid lodge under the oppressive dominion of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a biblical-era holy text monster. Be prepared to be gripped by a filmic experience that combines raw fear with ancient myths, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a historical motif in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is redefined when the demons no longer form from an outside force, but rather from within. This illustrates the haunting aspect of all involved. The result is a riveting psychological battle where the drama becomes a intense contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a haunting wild, five friends find themselves trapped under the ominous presence and overtake of a uncanny apparition. As the youths becomes incapable to resist her power, detached and stalked by unknowns impossible to understand, they are pushed to battle their deepest fears while the moments unceasingly ticks onward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and alliances disintegrate, prompting each person to challenge their personhood and the idea of free will itself. The intensity surge with every minute, delivering a scare-fueled ride that blends otherworldly panic with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dig into instinctual horror, an entity beyond time, emerging via mental cracks, and confronting a power that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is insensitive until the control shifts, and that flip is gut-wrenching because it is so close.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing households from coast to coast can get immersed in this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, extending the thrill to global fright lovers.


Be sure to catch this life-altering journey into fear. Enter *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to witness these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For teasers, production news, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 U.S. release slate braids together legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, plus franchise surges

From pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with mythic scripture and stretching into IP renewals in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified and deliberate year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios lock in tentpoles through proven series, simultaneously OTT services stack the fall with unboxed visions set against archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the tailwinds from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a bold swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, pinning the winter close.

Streamer Exclusives: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

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

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No legacy baggage. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

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

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Brands: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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 scrap for air. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The oncoming terror Year Ahead: continuations, new stories, as well as A Crowded Calendar engineered for frights

Dek The brand-new scare cycle packs right away with a January bottleneck, thereafter unfolds through the mid-year, and pushing into the December corridor, combining IP strength, new voices, and strategic counterprogramming. Distributors with platforms are embracing responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that shape horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This category has shown itself to be the dependable move in studio slates, a corner that can scale when it lands and still cushion the drag when it does not. After 2023 showed greenlighters that lean-budget entries can dominate audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with filmmaker-forward plays and surprise hits. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and festival-grade titles signaled there is a lane for a variety of tones, from series extensions to director-led originals that carry overseas. The result for 2026 is a programming that is strikingly coherent across companies, with intentional bunching, a balance of established brands and original hooks, and a sharpened emphasis on theatrical windows that power the aftermarket on premium rental and home streaming.

Schedulers say the category now serves as a schedule utility on the slate. The genre can debut on a wide range of weekends, supply a clear pitch for spots and short-form placements, and over-index with fans that arrive on advance nights and return through the sophomore frame if the picture satisfies. Emerging from a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout signals conviction in that logic. The slate commences with a busy January run, then exploits spring through early summer for counterprogramming, while leaving room for a October build that extends to All Hallows period and past the holiday. The gridline also shows the tightening integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and scale up at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and legacy IP. Major shops are not just releasing another installment. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a recalibrated tone or a talent selection that connects a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are favoring material texture, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That fusion yields the 2026 slate a lively combination of assurance and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a relay and a classic-mode character piece. his comment is here Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a memory-charged bent without covering again the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in classic imagery, first images of characters, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is elegant, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an synthetic partner that shifts into a harmful mate. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that blurs intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain imp source top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s releases are framed as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a tactile, practical-first mix can feel prestige on a lean spend. Position this as a splatter summer horror rush that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is marketing as a reimagined restart 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 focus to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign creative around canon, and creature work, elements that can amplify premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by historical precision and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus has already locked the day for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is supportive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that elevates both week-one demand and trial spikes in the downstream. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with international acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival additions, scheduling horror entries tight to release and coalescing around releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with recognized filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern sound and image. 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 hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using select theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use fan equity. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a rising filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the package is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not prevent a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 shot back-to-back, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind this slate telegraph a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with 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 allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which play well in fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that elevate disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down 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 credible, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working 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 add screens in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s AI companion evolves into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 unyielding boss work to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic turns and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s practical craft and quiet 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 family-home haunting narrative that channels the fear through a youth’s uneven perspective. Rating: pending. Production: locked. 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 rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that teases hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. 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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. 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 time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by this page PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will compete 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 take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where lower and 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 exploit those windows. 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 flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, audio design, and cinematography 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the gasps sell the seats.