Primeval Terror Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding shocker, arriving Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A terrifying unearthly fright fest from creator / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an archaic malevolence when unrelated individuals become pawns in a fiendish contest. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching story of struggle and archaic horror that will alter terror storytelling this Halloween season. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and emotionally thick suspense flick follows five characters who arise ensnared in a wooded shelter under the dark control of Kyra, a possessed female possessed by a antiquated Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be shaken by a motion picture venture that weaves together bone-deep fear with legendary tales, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a long-standing motif in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is redefined when the malevolences no longer descend from an outside force, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the shadowy layer of the players. The result is a riveting mental war where the conflict becomes a unforgiving clash between virtue and vice.


In a barren woodland, five youths find themselves cornered under the ghastly force and overtake of a elusive being. As the youths becomes unable to deny her command, detached and pursued by unknowns unimaginable, they are pushed to face their core terrors while the hours relentlessly ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion rises and alliances break, pressuring each person to challenge their essence and the concept of volition itself. The intensity mount with every heartbeat, delivering a horror experience that fuses occult fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to explore primal fear, an spirit from ancient eras, influencing emotional fractures, and dealing with a presence that strips down our being when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant evoking something rooted in terror. She is insensitive until the invasion happens, and that change is terrifying because it is so internal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering viewers anywhere can dive into this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has attracted over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, offering the tale to a global viewership.


Don’t miss this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these evil-rooted truths about existence.


For teasers, director cuts, and social posts from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: 2025 U.S. Slate fuses old-world possession, indie terrors, together with brand-name tremors

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories inspired by near-Eastern lore all the way to brand-name continuations paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured as well as precision-timed year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Top studios set cornerstones with familiar IP, even as platform operators saturate the fall with new voices together with old-world menace. On the festival side, indie storytellers is riding the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and 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.

As summer wanes, the WB camp drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious 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 teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The follow up digs further into canon, grows the animatronic horror lineup, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 is a calculated bet. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

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

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 Horror season: entries, filmmaker-first projects, And A brimming Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek: The fresh scare slate crams early with a January bottleneck, after that spreads through June and July, and pushing into the holiday frame, braiding series momentum, original angles, and well-timed calendar placement. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that shape genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent option in annual schedules, a lane that can break out when it lands and still cushion the drag when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for top brass that cost-conscious horror vehicles can shape social chatter, the following year kept the drumbeat going with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The trend extended into 2025, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is a lane for several lanes, from series extensions to original features that perform internationally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a roster that is strikingly coherent across studios, with strategic blocks, a combination of known properties and new packages, and a re-energized strategy on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and home streaming.

Executives say the space now behaves like a versatile piece on the schedule. Horror can roll out on many corridors, generate a simple premise for promo reels and vertical videos, and outstrip with moviegoers that line up on Thursday nights and stick through the sophomore frame if the feature lands. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores belief in that setup. The year launches with a front-loaded January window, then uses spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while keeping space for a fall corridor that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The calendar also includes the expanded integration of arthouse labels and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across shared IP webs and classic IP. The players are not just releasing another installment. They are looking to package brand continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that signals a re-angled tone or a lead change that links a upcoming film to a early run. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the most watched originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That blend offers 2026 a vital pairing of known notes and freshness, which is what works overseas.

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

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a legacy handover and a rootsy character-forward chapter. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a heritage-honoring mode without replaying the last two entries’ sisters storyline. A campaign is expected driven by legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed More about the author by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase mass reach through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, melancholic, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that mutates into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to reprise strange in-person beats and short reels that fuses romance and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names 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 official title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are sold as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later creative that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot gives Universal room to fill 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy style can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that maximizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is presenting as a fresh 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 clearer mandate to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around canon, and monster design, elements that can boost premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that fortifies both launch urgency and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library curation, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about Netflix originals and festival pickups, dating horror entries on shorter runways and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of precision releases and prompt platform moves that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, elevated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a big-screen first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using mini theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the approach. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not prevent a day-date try from winning when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reframe POV and widen scale. 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 two-step approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Technique and craft currents

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores unease and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster realization and design, which align with convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s 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 somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the control balance flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s physical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 domestic haunting story that explores the chill of a child’s wobbly point of view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-supported and toplined ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody return that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a another family lashed to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and primal menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate repeatable beats from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The sleeper-hit hunt 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Anticipate a robust 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, right-sized allotments, 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, sound, 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.