Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

One eerie paranormal nightmare movie from writer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an ancient fear when outsiders become tokens in a cursed ceremony. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking saga of continuance and forgotten curse that will reconstruct the horror genre this cool-weather season. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and gothic screenplay follows five lost souls who arise stuck in a remote cabin under the dark grip of Kyra, a cursed figure claimed by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Get ready to be immersed by a motion picture display that melds visceral dread with mystical narratives, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a legendary foundation in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the malevolences no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This illustrates the haunting version of every character. The result is a gripping mental war where the conflict becomes a brutal face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a haunting landscape, five adults find themselves contained under the malicious effect and domination of a haunted character. As the protagonists becomes incapable to evade her grasp, exiled and followed by spirits beyond comprehension, they are thrust to reckon with their soulful dreads while the seconds brutally runs out toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and relationships fracture, pressuring each participant to question their being and the nature of personal agency itself. The danger accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a chilling narrative that intertwines otherworldly suspense with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract core terror, an curse from ancient eras, channeling itself through psychological breaks, and examining a entity that threatens selfhood when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra involved tapping into something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is harrowing because it is so intimate.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering horror lovers no matter where they are can be part of this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first preview, which has received over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Avoid skipping this haunted fall into madness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these spiritual awakenings about free will.


For cast commentary, set experiences, and social posts from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit our horror hub.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 U.S. lineup interlaces legend-infused possession, indie terrors, stacked beside series shake-ups

Across pressure-cooker survival tales saturated with legendary theology all the way to IP renewals in concert with surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered and tactically planned year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. leading studios lock in tentpoles with known properties, simultaneously SVOD players pack the fall with new perspectives together with old-world menace. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the backdraft of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures sets loose the finale from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Digital Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

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

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror resurges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The new fright year to come: next chapters, non-franchise titles, And A stacked Calendar Built For jolts

Dek: The upcoming horror year stacks up front with a January cluster, then spreads through June and July, and deep into the winter holidays, mixing marquee clout, new concepts, and calculated counterplay. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that position these films into four-quadrant talking points.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This space has established itself as the bankable option in studio lineups, a segment that can scale when it hits and still limit the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught strategy teams that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can galvanize mainstream conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing moved into the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays highlighted there is a market for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to director-led originals that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a calendar that shows rare alignment across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of brand names and new pitches, and a reinvigorated eye on theatrical windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now functions as a utility player on the calendar. The genre can debut on almost any weekend, offer a quick sell for creative and shorts, and outperform with ticket buyers that come out on opening previews and return through the week two if the movie pays off. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 mapping telegraphs trust in that dynamic. The calendar gets underway with a front-loaded January band, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a fall corridor that pushes into Halloween and into November. The arrangement also reflects the increasing integration of arthouse labels and platforms that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and broaden at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is brand curation across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Major shops are not just mounting another sequel. They are moving to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that indicates a re-angled tone or a casting move that binds a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the high-profile originals are doubling down on on-set craft, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That pairing gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of familiarity and surprise, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece plays that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-focused installment. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a legacy-leaning strategy without going over the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by brand visuals, first images of characters, and a promo sequence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three separate pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is simple, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man activates an AI companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew creepy live activations and bite-size content that melds devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil 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 grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s releases are presented as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven style can feel big on a disciplined budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror shot that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is marketing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can increase format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and period language, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that maximizes both opening-weekend urgency and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video blends acquired titles with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to sustain interest on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival additions, slotting horror entries closer to launch and eventizing releases with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, 2026 leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for have a peek here Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a dual release from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre hint at a continued move toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature work and production design, which play well in con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in big rooms.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. 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 foggy reset amid headline IP. The month wraps 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 serious, but the spread of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a bridge slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s digital partner shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss try to survive on a isolated island as the power dynamic turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting tale that manipulates the fear of a child’s shaky impressions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at modern genre fads and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a unlucky family anchored to past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. 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 period-precise speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner 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 beaten straight-to-streaming releases. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where modest-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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, 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 turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with 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 deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.