Ancient Malevolence returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding feature, bowing October 2025 on major streaming services

A spine-tingling ghostly shockfest from literary architect / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an primeval terror when outsiders become proxies in a satanic contest. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking story of endurance and primordial malevolence that will reimagine scare flicks this scare season. Brought to life by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and eerie tale follows five figures who wake up imprisoned in a far-off cottage under the sinister sway of Kyra, a possessed female dominated by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be shaken by a audio-visual journey that weaves together deep-seated panic with timeless legends, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a iconic fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is radically shifted when the beings no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather within themselves. This suggests the most terrifying dimension of the victims. The result is a riveting mind game where the plotline becomes a ongoing conflict between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak outland, five friends find themselves caught under the ghastly control and grasp of a uncanny female presence. As the team becomes submissive to resist her control, detached and preyed upon by terrors beyond comprehension, they are compelled to acknowledge their soulful dreads while the timeline relentlessly draws closer toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust grows and ties disintegrate, pushing each individual to question their essence and the principle of personal agency itself. The consequences escalate with every breath, delivering a fear-soaked story that harmonizes spiritual fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dive into pure dread, an force from prehistory, manifesting in fragile psyche, and confronting a darkness that redefines identity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something rooted in terror. She is oblivious until the demon emerges, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing customers anywhere can get immersed in this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its intro video, which has collected over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, bringing the film to a global viewership.


Tune in for this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For director insights, filmmaker commentary, and press updates from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 U.S. calendar melds legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, alongside series shake-ups

Spanning last-stand terror suffused with legendary theology and stretching into brand-name continuations paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the most variegated plus carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. top-tier distributors bookend the months with established lines, as platform operators stack the fall with unboxed visions set against archetypal fear. On another front, indie storytellers is drafting behind the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

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

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, reaching teens and game grownups. It hits in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, 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. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new chiller slate: continuations, new stories, paired with A packed Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek The brand-new genre slate stacks from the jump with a January logjam, after that spreads through summer corridors, and continuing into the holiday frame, weaving series momentum, original angles, and calculated counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are focusing on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that transform these pictures into cross-demo moments.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has grown into the bankable release in studio calendars, a vertical that can lift when it catches and still buffer the exposure when it falls short. After 2023 demonstrated to buyers that low-to-mid budget scare machines can own the discourse, 2024 extended the rally with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The carry extended into 2025, where returns and arthouse crossovers underscored there is appetite for different modes, from ongoing IP entries to original one-offs that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the field, with clear date clusters, a balance of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a revived focus on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and streaming.

Planners observe the category now slots in as a utility player on the grid. Horror can launch on nearly any frame, offer a clean hook for trailers and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with patrons that turn out on preview nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the title works. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence signals trust in that model. The calendar begins with a busy January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall corridor that flows toward Halloween and into the next week. The layout also reflects the increasing integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and widen at the timely point.

A companion trend is series management across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. The studios are not just making another sequel. They are trying to present continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that broadcasts a reframed mood or a lead change that connects a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are celebrating in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That fusion hands 2026 a smart balance of assurance and invention, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a roots-evoking framework without looping the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will double down on. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will drive wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever tops pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man brings home an AI companion that becomes a perilous partner. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to revisit creepy live activations and short-form creative that hybridizes intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele projects are sold as filmmaker events, with a hinting teaser and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, hands-on effects approach can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Look for a red-band summer horror shock that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio rolls out two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is presenting as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both players and first-timers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around mythos, and monster design, elements that can accelerate premium screens and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets 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 centered on careful craft and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s horror titles land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that boosts both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival snaps, locking in horror entries closer to drop and making event-like launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has indicated interest to board select projects with recognized filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly activity when the genre conversation builds.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane 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 angle is straightforward: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a theatrical-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday frame to broaden. That positioning has shown results for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a brace of late-summer and Source fall platformers that can go wider if reception encourages. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited runs to ignite evangelism that fuels their membership.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the cast-creatives package is recognizable enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps frame the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that maintained windows did not prevent a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 shot in tandem, permits marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror point to a continued turn toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a first look that leans on mood over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which favor con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

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

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where Check This Out the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can play the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s AI companion unfolds into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

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 be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 chiller that threads the dread through a child’s unsteady personal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-supported and star-fronted 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 reboot that riffs on current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family anchored to older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 era-accurate language and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three pragmatic forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or recalendared in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on meme-ready beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where midrange-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 quiet 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sonics, and visual design 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is recognizable IP where it plays, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.