Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

An haunting mystic horror tale from screenwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primeval malevolence when drifters become vehicles in a malevolent experiment. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of endurance and age-old darkness that will resculpt horror this Halloween season. Guided by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy feature follows five individuals who regain consciousness stranded in a far-off shelter under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a female presence consumed by a 2,000-year-old sacred-era entity. Brace yourself to be gripped by a cinematic spectacle that melds visceral dread with arcane tradition, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a legendary foundation in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the forces no longer originate from elsewhere, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the shadowy aspect of each of them. The result is a emotionally raw cognitive warzone where the story becomes a brutal struggle between right and wrong.


In a bleak natural abyss, five teens find themselves isolated under the possessive grip and spiritual invasion of a elusive apparition. As the survivors becomes submissive to combat her will, isolated and tracked by presences inconceivable, they are pushed to battle their greatest panics while the seconds coldly winds toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and associations erode, pressuring each figure to evaluate their essence and the concept of independent thought itself. The intensity escalate with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that intertwines paranormal dread with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dive into core terror, an threat from prehistory, feeding on emotional vulnerability, and exposing a evil that forces self-examination when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra involved tapping into something unfamiliar to reason. She is unaware until the haunting manifests, and that change is emotionally raw because it is so internal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering watchers no matter where they are can dive into this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has racked up over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Do not miss this soul-jarring descent into darkness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to confront these spiritual awakenings about the mind.


For director insights, making-of footage, and alerts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 domestic schedule weaves ancient-possession motifs, underground frights, together with returning-series thunder

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare steeped in scriptural legend all the way to franchise returns paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered plus carefully orchestrated year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors set cornerstones through proven series, concurrently premium streamers pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and old-world menace. In parallel, indie storytellers is carried on the kinetic energy of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween stays the prime week, the other windows are mapped with care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, but this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: High-craft horror returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal Pictures starts the year with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

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

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, under 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.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight 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 comes roaring back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming spook cycle: entries, standalone ideas, plus A loaded Calendar aimed at nightmares

Dek: The incoming terror year builds from the jump with a January wave, before it runs through summer, and continuing into the holiday stretch, mixing IP strength, creative pitches, and smart release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and short-form initiatives that shape horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the surest option in release strategies, a segment that can expand when it clicks and still cushion the floor when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured top brass that low-to-mid budget genre plays can steer the discourse, 2024 maintained heat with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The energy rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings confirmed there is appetite for several lanes, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a calendar that reads highly synchronized across distributors, with obvious clusters, a balance of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a recommitted emphasis on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the category now performs as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can open on virtually any date, offer a quick sell for marketing and shorts, and punch above weight with viewers that arrive on early shows and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the picture delivers. On the heels of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan underscores belief in that equation. The year opens with a heavy January corridor, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that stretches into All Hallows period and into the next week. The map also underscores the tightening integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can launch in limited release, build word of mouth, and expand at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is brand curation across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just making another continuation. They are setting up continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that ties a incoming chapter to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing in-camera technique, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That interplay hands 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two marquee plays that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a legacy-leaning treatment without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected centered on recognizable motifs, initial cast looks, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue broad awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever owns the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tight, tragic, and big-hook: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that becomes a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to reprise off-kilter promo beats and short reels that fuses companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a public title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are presented as event films, with a hinting teaser and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The prime October weekend gives Universal room to fill 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy mix can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror blast that spotlights international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio rolls out two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, preserving a consistent supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is framing as a ground-zero restart 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 well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and archaic language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a structure that amplifies both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video will mix licensed films with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and featured rows to keep attention on lifetime take. Netflix retains agility about originals and festival buys, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events drops with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for retention when the genre conversation surges.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a standard theatrical run for the title, an good sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has served the company well for elevated genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror my review here titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using targeted theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

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 activate cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps clarify the plan. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not block a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, art-forward horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, allows marketing to interlace chapters through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued move toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates unease and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and guild coverage 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 tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which match well with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is full. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s intelligent companion escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse 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 run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven 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 hard-edged boss push to survive on a lonely island as the control dynamic upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fright, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that threads the dread through a minor’s unsteady inner lens. Rating: not yet rated. 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 involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody return that pokes at modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family lashed to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. 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: TBA. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: continuing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 period language and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming landings. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Calendar math also matters. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 modest-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, 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 shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.