Mythic Dread Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked supernatural thriller, launching Oct 2025 on premium platforms

One unnerving supernatural suspense story from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an long-buried malevolence when outsiders become instruments in a cursed maze. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking narrative of staying alive and forgotten curse that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and cinematic story follows five characters who come to confined in a unreachable cottage under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be drawn in by a narrative adventure that weaves together bone-deep fear with mythic lore, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a historical fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the malevolences no longer come outside the characters, but rather from deep inside. This echoes the most sinister dimension of each of them. The result is a intense moral showdown where the tension becomes a relentless struggle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a remote forest, five young people find themselves confined under the fiendish aura and grasp of a unknown character. As the victims becomes incapable to resist her control, disconnected and stalked by powers ungraspable, they are made to endure their greatest panics while the seconds mercilessly runs out toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and friendships fracture, driving each person to evaluate their character and the structure of independent thought itself. The consequences amplify with every passing moment, delivering a cinematic nightmare that intertwines paranormal dread with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to channel elemental fright, an spirit from ancient eras, working through inner turmoil, and challenging a being that redefines identity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant evoking something beyond human emotion. She is uninformed until the haunting manifests, and that change is emotionally raw because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving audiences worldwide can dive into this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has been viewed over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, exporting the fear to lovers of terror across nations.


Tune in for this visceral spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to uncover these evil-rooted truths about inner darkness.


For exclusive trailers, extra content, and promotions via the production team, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s watershed moment: the year 2025 U.S. release slate Mixes archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, plus franchise surges

Running from last-stand terror suffused with biblical myth to returning series paired with acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned plus deliberate year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses stabilize the year with franchise anchors, simultaneously digital services crowd the fall with new perspectives and archetypal fear. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A fat September–October lane is customary now, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, accordingly 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige fear returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal fires the first shot with a bold swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

By late summer, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Originals: No Budget, No Problem

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece fronted by Alison Brie and 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 plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on 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
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 Horror season: next chapters, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The fresh genre calendar loads from day one with a January cluster, from there unfolds through the warm months, and carrying into the festive period, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated counterprogramming. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that transform the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has become the predictable move in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it performs and still cushion the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 reminded top brass that mid-range scare machines can drive the discourse, the following year maintained heat with filmmaker-forward plays and word-of-mouth wins. The momentum moved into 2025, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is room for several lanes, from continued chapters to fresh IP that carry overseas. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that reads highly synchronized across the market, with clear date clusters, a mix of familiar brands and new concepts, and a reinvigorated priority on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now functions as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can premiere on a wide range of weekends, deliver a quick sell for marketing and reels, and over-index with fans that arrive on first-look nights and sustain through the second weekend if the title delivers. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores assurance in that logic. The slate opens with a front-loaded January band, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween corridor and beyond. The schedule also reflects the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can build gradually, create conversation, and scale up at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across shared universes and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are shaping as brand continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that announces a tonal shift or a lead change that ties a next entry to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing physical effects work, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a smart balance of familiarity and freshness, which is how the films export.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the heart, setting it up as both a handoff and a return-to-roots character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a legacy-leaning framework without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push built on franchise iconography, early character teases, and a tiered teaser plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will drive large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that evolves into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to mirror odd public stunts and short-cut promos that hybridizes romance and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are treated as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to own 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a raw, prosthetic-heavy method can feel big on a disciplined budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror surge that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, sustaining a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can amplify PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror built on minute detail and period language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that maximizes both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using curated hubs, fright rows, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway 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 angle is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical rollout for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using select theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By proportion, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is fatigue. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh More about the author ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the deal build is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps announce the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not block a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution and sets, which lend themselves to con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is heavy. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. 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 sorrowing man’s AI companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 tough boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that interrogates the panic of a child’s fragile read. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed and name-above-title spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases hot-button genre motifs and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBD. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up 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 leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 breakout 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, 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 prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.