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

An terrifying unearthly nightmare movie from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an forgotten malevolence when outsiders become proxies in a supernatural struggle. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching journey of resistance and prehistoric entity that will revamp the horror genre this season. Visualized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and tone-heavy thriller follows five people who arise isolated in a isolated structure under the malignant manipulation of Kyra, a female presence consumed by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Steel yourself to be absorbed by a big screen adventure that unites soul-chilling terror with folklore, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a enduring fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the entities no longer come externally, but rather within themselves. This mirrors the malevolent side of the players. The result is a harrowing mind game where the conflict becomes a constant struggle between innocence and sin.


In a unforgiving terrain, five youths find themselves cornered under the ominous force and inhabitation of a obscure character. As the companions becomes helpless to evade her curse, exiled and tormented by forces beyond reason, they are made to endure their emotional phantoms while the countdown harrowingly ticks onward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion surges and alliances crack, pushing each individual to rethink their being and the philosophy of decision-making itself. The consequences escalate with every beat, delivering a nightmarish journey that intertwines otherworldly panic with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore elemental fright, an curse that existed before mankind, emerging via psychological breaks, and questioning a force that strips down our being when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is clueless until the takeover begins, and that turn is terrifying because it is so private.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure subscribers around the globe can be part of this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has seen over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, delivering the story to scare fans abroad.


Mark your calendar for this soul-jarring ride through nightmares. Experience *Young & Cursed* this launch day to face these spiritual awakenings about free will.


For bonus footage, making-of footage, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit the movie portal.





American horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 season domestic schedule integrates biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

From grit-forward survival fare grounded in ancient scripture to series comebacks in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 is emerging as the richest combined with deliberate year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios lay down anchors through proven series, as streaming platforms prime the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with old-world menace. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is riding the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween stays the prime week, the other windows are mapped with care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, however this time, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, accordingly 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. set 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 delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma driven plotting, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Low budgets, big teeth

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Next comes Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Brands: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror reemerges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Projection: 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. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. 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 key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The new spook lineup: brand plays, new stories, And A packed Calendar calibrated for jolts

Dek: The current terror slate loads early with a January cluster, then stretches through the summer months, and well into the December corridor, fusing brand equity, original angles, and tactical counterweight. Studios with streamers are focusing on lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that shape genre titles into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the sturdy option in studio lineups, a pillar that can expand when it catches and still hedge the floor when it falls short. After 2023 reconfirmed for executives that mid-range chillers can command audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The tailwind moved into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and prestige plays highlighted there is room for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to original one-offs that travel well. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a run that shows rare alignment across the major shops, with mapped-out bands, a spread of known properties and new concepts, and a sharpened emphasis on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital and platforms.

Planners observe the genre now behaves like a flex slot on the slate. Horror can roll out on almost any weekend, provide a tight logline for teasers and shorts, and lead with moviegoers that arrive on opening previews and stay strong through the sophomore frame if the entry connects. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration shows belief in that setup. The year launches with a weighty January block, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while reserving space for a fall corridor that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The program also features the stronger partnership of specialized labels and streamers that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the inflection point.

A companion trend is series management across shared universes and established properties. Studio teams are not just turning out another entry. They are setting up connection with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that signals a re-angled tone or a talent selection that binds a next film to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the directors behind the marquee originals are returning to real-world builds, real effects and specific settings. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and invention, which is the formula for international play.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight entries that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and check my blog a return-to-roots character-first story. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture telegraphs a classic-referencing strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters thread. Expect a marketing push fueled by legacy iconography, initial cast looks, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that mutates into a lethal partner. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to revisit strange in-person beats and short-cut promos that mixes devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title drop to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that holds back and a later creative that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Source holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, practical-effects forward execution can feel elevated on a disciplined budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror blast that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around canon, and monster design, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by minute detail and language, this time circling werewolf lore. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is glowing.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ordering that enhances both first-week urgency and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix acquired titles with worldwide buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about internal projects and festival pickups, timing horror entries on shorter runways and making event-like arrivals with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a laddered of selective theatrical runs and swift platform pivots that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is straightforward: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, refined for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to widen. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchise entries versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The question, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the package is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from performing when the brand was sticky. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they alter lens and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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 lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind 2026 horror hint at a continued emphasis on real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature work and production design, which play well in expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is full. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid heavier IP. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tonal variety affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner grows into something fatal and romantic. 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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 hard-edged boss struggle to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power inverts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s material craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 narrative that interrogates the panic of a child’s fragile read. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and toplined supernatural mood piece.

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 satire sequel that skewers today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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: TBA. Production: principal photography 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 ripples again, with a new clan tethered to ancient dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: to be announced. Production: ongoing. 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 period-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The dark-horse 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 surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sonics, and picture 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 rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.