Primordial Evil Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked horror thriller, bowing October 2025 across top streamers

A frightening spectral terror film from literary architect / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten force when outsiders become proxies in a malevolent trial. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving journey of continuance and mythic evil that will alter the horror genre this cool-weather season. Realized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and emotionally thick feature follows five lost souls who arise trapped in a far-off cabin under the malevolent rule of Kyra, a mysterious girl haunted by a 2,000-year-old biblical force. Get ready to be absorbed by a motion picture display that merges gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a classic element in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is redefined when the demons no longer come from beyond, but rather within themselves. This embodies the malevolent shade of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing mental war where the events becomes a ongoing struggle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a forsaken wilderness, five souls find themselves confined under the malicious influence and domination of a uncanny character. As the victims becomes defenseless to escape her curse, exiled and targeted by spirits impossible to understand, they are required to battle their core terrors while the hours ruthlessly ticks toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust escalates and alliances implode, forcing each survivor to challenge their values and the philosophy of self-determination itself. The hazard climb with every passing moment, delivering a chilling narrative that merges occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dive into elemental fright, an curse beyond time, manipulating mental cracks, and navigating a evil that questions who we are when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is insensitive until the curse activates, and that evolution is eerie because it is so emotional.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering fans internationally can be part of this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has gathered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, giving access to the movie to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this haunted fall into madness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to experience these evil-rooted truths about existence.


For exclusive trailers, production news, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate fuses ancient-possession motifs, underground frights, plus returning-series thunder

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with mythic scripture and including IP renewals and surgical indie voices, 2025 is lining up as the most complex in tandem with strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios lay down anchors with established lines, concurrently SVOD players load up the fall with fresh voices in concert with legend-coded dread. At the same time, the artisan tier is surfing the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A fat September–October lane is customary now, notably this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are precise, and 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, the WB camp launches the swan song from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma as theme, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forward View: Autumn density and winter pivot

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The coming 2026 fear release year: installments, universe starters, as well as A loaded Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The upcoming terror calendar crams from the jump with a January traffic jam, before it stretches through the mid-year, and straight through the holidays, braiding IP strength, novel approaches, and savvy calendar placement. Studios with streamers are embracing efficient budgets, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that frame these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has proven to be the most reliable tool in annual schedules, a vertical that can grow when it connects and still hedge the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that cost-conscious shockers can own the zeitgeist, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and quiet over-performers. The run translated to the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and elevated films highlighted there is demand for a variety of tones, from returning installments to original one-offs that scale internationally. The takeaway for 2026 is a roster that seems notably aligned across the market, with obvious clusters, a combination of brand names and new concepts, and a re-energized stance on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and streaming.

Buyers contend the category now performs as a plug-and-play option on the slate. Horror can kick off on open real estate, provide a tight logline for creative and vertical videos, and lead with audiences that arrive on early shows and return through the next weekend if the release connects. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 configuration telegraphs assurance in that playbook. The slate commences with a front-loaded January block, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while making space for a autumn stretch that stretches into the fright window and into the next week. The schedule also spotlights the tightening integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can platform and widen, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the proper time.

A parallel macro theme is legacy care across unified worlds and storied titles. Studio teams are not just turning out another chapter. They are shaping as continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a art treatment that indicates a new vibe or a cast configuration that reconnects a new entry to a foundational era. At the very same time, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are doubling down on physical effects work, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That blend produces 2026 a strong blend of comfort and unexpected turns, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount sets the tone early with two spotlight releases that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, framing it as both a baton pass and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative posture signals a memory-charged treatment without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave rooted in recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will build four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick shifts to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The my company hook is clean, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man implements an AI companion that unfolds into a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to mirror eerie street stunts and bite-size content that hybridizes intimacy and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a proper title to become an PR pop closer to the initial tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s work are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that holds back and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning treatment can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror charge that embraces global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio sets two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, maintaining a steady supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is framing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both diehards and newcomers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and monster design, elements that can amplify premium booking interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors 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 meticulous craft and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal titles flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival wins, confirming horror entries near their drops and framing as events arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to acquire select projects with acclaimed directors or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clean: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the September weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday slot to increase reach. That positioning has helped for auteur horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. 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 as partners, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Known brands versus new stories

By proportion, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on franchise value. The challenge, as ever, is overexposure. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. 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, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the configuration is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that observed windows did not foreclose a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was sticky. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they pivot perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to link the films through protagonists and motifs and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The director conversations behind the year’s horror hint at a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that highlights atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in see here red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature execution and sets, which align with convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that elevate surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

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 brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card use.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: gothic-game 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 difficult boss battle to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy reverses and paranoia spreads. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s practical effects and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that channels the fear through a youngster’s unreliable inner lens. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: major-studio and marquee-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true-crime buzz. Rating: undetermined. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026, why now

Three hands-on forces frame this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and accelerated schedules. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, 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 rhythm and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, 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 defined. There is name recognition where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.