Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases age-old dread, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One hair-raising occult scare-fest from creator / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an primordial entity when unknowns become puppets in a supernatural experiment. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of living through and mythic evil that will reimagine the horror genre this scare season. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and immersive feature follows five lost souls who emerge caught in a far-off house under the menacing sway of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a 2,000-year-old sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be drawn in by a narrative adventure that unites bodily fright with ancient myths, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a well-established fixture in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is subverted when the presences no longer descend externally, but rather within themselves. This symbolizes the most sinister element of these individuals. The result is a bone-chilling cognitive warzone where the suspense becomes a ongoing face-off between purity and corruption.


In a barren backcountry, five young people find themselves contained under the malicious grip and possession of a elusive figure. As the ensemble becomes submissive to withstand her will, exiled and tracked by unknowns impossible to understand, they are pushed to deal with their core terrors while the final hour brutally ticks onward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and alliances disintegrate, pressuring each cast member to reconsider their true nature and the principle of liberty itself. The stakes amplify with every heartbeat, delivering a chilling narrative that integrates demonic fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore core terror, an evil older than civilization itself, emerging via inner turmoil, and testing a power that redefines identity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra demanded embodying something more primal than sorrow. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that metamorphosis is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for digital release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing subscribers internationally can survive this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has earned over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, delivering the story to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this gripping ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to acknowledge these unholy truths about human nature.


For sneak peeks, special features, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across online outlets and visit the official website.





American horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season stateside slate integrates archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, set against Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with scriptural legend and stretching into series comebacks in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the richest plus tactically planned year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Top studios lock in tentpoles through proven series, while premium streamers stack the fall with new perspectives as well as legend-coded dread. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is propelled by the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

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

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. Pictures releases the last chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. 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 those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy IP: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. 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. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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 brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The coming 2026 terror calendar year ahead: brand plays, non-franchise titles, alongside A Crowded Calendar engineered for screams

Dek The upcoming scare cycle crowds early with a January crush, from there stretches through midyear, and running into the holidays, marrying IP strength, untold stories, and tactical calendar placement. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that turn genre titles into culture-wide discussion.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has proven to be the consistent swing in programming grids, a lane that can scale when it clicks and still hedge the drag when it misses. After the 2023 year showed top brass that responsibly budgeted pictures can own pop culture, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and stealth successes. The tailwind extended into 2025, where reawakened brands and prestige plays showed there is capacity for diverse approaches, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that travel well. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a roster that looks unusually coordinated across the field, with clear date clusters, a spread of established brands and first-time concepts, and a re-energized eye on cinema windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now slots in as a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can open on many corridors, deliver a simple premise for previews and reels, and over-index with crowds that show up on Thursday previews and return through the subsequent weekend if the film connects. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 plan underscores conviction in that approach. The calendar commences with a busy January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a September to October window that pushes into All Hallows period and past Halloween. The program also underscores the continuing integration of specialized labels and streamers that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and classic IP. The studios are not just releasing another next film. They are seeking to position continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a refreshed voice or a casting choice that anchors a new entry to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are doubling down on real-world builds, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That interplay hands 2026 a lively combination of known notes and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight moves that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, steering it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach signals a roots-evoking treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push built on franchise iconography, early character teases, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will chase wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an virtual partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the marketing arm likely to reprise creepy live activations and short-cut promos that threads romance and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as director events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The prime October weekend affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror surge that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify format premiums and fandom activation.

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 builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by historical precision and dialect, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that elevates both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival snaps, dating horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful 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+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with prestige directors or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc 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 offer is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns outline the plan. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to thread films through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind 2026 horror hint at a continued emphasis on practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates creep and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, 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 returns to the core star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which are ideal for con floor moments and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

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 quiet contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May load in summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a early fall window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner turns into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 demanding boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that toys with the terror of a child’s fragile perspective. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 detonates, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a unlucky family entangled with residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and pared-down timelines. 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming launches. 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 power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 search for sleepers 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a click site supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to 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 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 shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.