Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing October 2025 across top digital platforms

One frightening spiritual thriller from cinematographer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic terror when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a devilish ordeal. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching depiction of resistance and mythic evil that will transform the fear genre this ghoul season. Produced by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and tone-heavy suspense flick follows five young adults who wake up isolated in a unreachable wooden structure under the ominous grip of Kyra, a central character occupied by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Steel yourself to be hooked by a filmic ride that integrates deep-seated panic with legendary tales, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a recurring narrative in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the fiends no longer develop beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This marks the deepest facet of the cast. The result is a emotionally raw inner struggle where the plotline becomes a constant struggle between light and darkness.


In a forsaken wild, five youths find themselves marooned under the sinister control and infestation of a uncanny apparition. As the ensemble becomes incapable to withstand her control, abandoned and followed by unknowns indescribable, they are made to battle their deepest fears while the hours unforgivingly moves toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease builds and friendships fracture, coercing each survivor to doubt their essence and the idea of volition itself. The cost grow with every heartbeat, delivering a nightmarish journey that harmonizes unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to tap into raw dread, an threat before modern man, influencing fragile psyche, and navigating a will that erodes the self when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is blind until the invasion happens, and that change is harrowing because it is so personal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring users worldwide can experience this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first trailer, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, giving access to the movie to lovers of terror across nations.


Join this soul-jarring path of possession. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to survive these haunting secrets about the soul.


For director insights, special features, and announcements directly from production, follow @YACFilm across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s Turning Point: 2025 American release plan fuses myth-forward possession, independent shockers, set against series shake-ups

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare rooted in mythic scripture and extending to returning series paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be horror’s most layered along with precision-timed year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners hold down the year with familiar IP, as platform operators saturate the fall with unboxed visions in concert with mythic dread. On another front, the art-house flank is catching the echoes of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium dread reemerges

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal camp opens the year with a statement play: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in an immediate now. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, the WB camp releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson returns to the helm, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, along with eerie supernatural rules. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, stretches the animatronic parade, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, 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. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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 is a clever angle. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

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, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Projection: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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 scrap for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The new scare year to come: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, plus A loaded Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The current genre calendar loads from day one with a January pile-up, thereafter runs through the mid-year, and carrying into the winter holidays, marrying IP strength, new voices, and strategic counterprogramming. Distributors with platforms are committing to efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that convert horror entries into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the sturdy release in studio lineups, a genre that can grow when it clicks and still safeguard the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year proved to executives that disciplined-budget fright engines can lead the zeitgeist, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The upswing carried into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles underscored there is an opening for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that travel well. The upshot for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the market, with clear date clusters, a spread of marquee IP and new concepts, and a refocused emphasis on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now works like a swing piece on the schedule. Horror can launch on open real estate, furnish a clear pitch for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with ticket buyers that turn out on first-look nights and sustain through the sophomore frame if the release satisfies. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout exhibits certainty in that engine. The slate kicks off with a busy January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a October build that carries into the Halloween corridor and into post-Halloween. The arrangement also highlights the deeper integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and scale up at the inflection point.

A companion trend is IP cultivation across linked properties and long-running brands. Studios are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a reframed mood or a talent selection that reconnects a next film to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the creative leads behind the high-profile originals are celebrating material texture, physical gags and grounded locations. That mix offers the 2026 slate a robust balance of comfort and novelty, which is how the films export.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount marks the early tempo with two centerpiece titles that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, setting it up as both a baton pass and a origin-leaning character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture hints at a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run anchored in classic imagery, early character teases, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer relief option, this one will drive mainstream recognition through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete lanes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man onboards an synthetic partner that mutates into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit strange in-person beats and bite-size content that hybridizes devotion and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are presented as marquee events, with a opaque teaser and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame allows Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has shown that a visceral, physical-effects centered treatment can feel high-value on a lean spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio launches two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is calling a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both core fans and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build marketing units around narrative world, and creature builds, elements that can increase large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and period language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The label has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is favorable.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre entries feed copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a tiered path that enhances both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the later phase. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with cross-border buys and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library pulls, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on overall cume. Netflix keeps optionality about internal projects and festival wins, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a two-step of targeted cinema placements and rapid platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown appetite to invest in select projects with established auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation builds.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern sonics 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 signaled a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, 2026 leans toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to position each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and talent-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the bundle is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a parallel release from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued shift toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that foreground razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in big rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is packed. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid headline IP. The month wraps 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 serious, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 set up the click to read more summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner grows into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power swivels and dread encroaches. 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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting premise that pipes the unease through a young child’s uncertain perspective. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan lashed to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and primal menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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

Why 2026, why now

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more measured 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 debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, soundcraft, and framing 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.