Mythic Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

One frightening supernatural fear-driven tale from narrative craftsman / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an age-old entity when strangers become proxies in a malevolent game. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of living through and primeval wickedness that will resculpt genre cinema this scare season. Brought to life by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and eerie cinema piece follows five characters who awaken ensnared in a wilderness-bound structure under the dark manipulation of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a two-thousand-year-old sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be captivated by a motion picture venture that unites visceral dread with legendary tales, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a recurring trope in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is twisted when the forces no longer descend beyond the self, but rather from their core. This embodies the malevolent aspect of the protagonists. The result is a riveting spiritual tug-of-war where the narrative becomes a unyielding contest between righteousness and malevolence.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five souls find themselves imprisoned under the malevolent sway and curse of a haunted person. As the protagonists becomes defenseless to oppose her control, stranded and preyed upon by forces unfathomable, they are pushed to battle their greatest panics while the clock coldly strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension grows and partnerships implode, urging each individual to rethink their true nature and the structure of volition itself. The danger mount with every minute, delivering a horror experience that intertwines mystical fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to evoke primal fear, an evil that existed before mankind, manipulating human fragility, and exposing a presence that erodes the self when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something beyond human emotion. She is ignorant until the takeover begins, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be available for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure audiences around the globe can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has pulled in over six-figure audience.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, offering the tale to global fright lovers.


Avoid skipping this mind-warping ride through nightmares. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to confront these evil-rooted truths about existence.


For cast commentary, production insights, and alerts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar fuses Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, stacked beside franchise surges

Across pressure-cooker survival tales grounded in legendary theology all the way to returning series as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified and precision-timed year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios stabilize the year with known properties, concurrently premium streamers stack the fall with unboxed visions set against archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is catching the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are targeted, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. 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. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer wanes, the WB camp rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson is back, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga starring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. 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 mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Brands: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror returns
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. 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. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 spook Year Ahead: entries, non-franchise titles, together with A loaded Calendar aimed at screams

Dek The incoming genre year packs up front with a January bottleneck, following that extends through summer, and pushing into the December corridor, weaving legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and strategic counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and platform-native promos that transform the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror has established itself as the bankable lever in release strategies, a lane that can scale when it clicks and still insulate the drag when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded leaders that low-to-mid budget chillers can shape the zeitgeist, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and stealth successes. The energy extended into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films confirmed there is room for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that play globally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a programming that reads highly synchronized across the market, with clear date clusters, a mix of known properties and new concepts, and a recommitted focus on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and SVOD.

Executives say the category now works like a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can debut on most weekends, offer a quick sell for ad units and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with fans that come out on previews Thursday and return through the follow-up frame if the feature satisfies. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout signals confidence in that engine. The year launches with a front-loaded January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a autumn stretch that stretches into the Halloween frame and into the next week. The arrangement also includes the increasing integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the strategic time.

A notable top-line trend is IP stewardship across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. Big banners are not just greenlighting another next film. They are shaping as continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a recalibrated tone or a casting move that connects a new installment to a early run. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the top original plays are favoring hands-on technique, real effects and location-forward worlds. That interplay affords the 2026 slate a strong blend of recognition and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two marquee pushes that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, presenting it as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character study. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a throwback-friendly mode without going over the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push driven by signature symbols, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative get redirected here partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase broad awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick reframes to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that becomes a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that melds intimacy and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a official title to become an earned moment closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The prime October weekend opens a lane to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a visceral, hands-on effects strategy can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is framing as a new foundation 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 directive to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around canon, and monster design, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ordering that fortifies both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival buys, securing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche 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 name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is tight: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 cinema-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to move out. That positioning has proved effective for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using targeted theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate household recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the team and cast is familiar enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Three-year comps make sense of the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not foreclose a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and expand the canvas. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without lulls.

Technique and craft currents

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which are ideal for fan-con activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that spotlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the range of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can play the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric 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 unyielding boss try to survive on a rugged island as the power balance tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting piece that mediates the fear via a preteen’s volatile perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-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 returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned 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: undetermined. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a unlucky family snared by returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: pending. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that eased or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 amplify reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 disciplined-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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, audio design, and imagery 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 Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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, edit tight trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.