Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing October 2025 on global platforms

One spine-tingling paranormal scare-fest from author / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic curse when newcomers become subjects in a cursed ceremony. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing episode of survival and primordial malevolence that will redefine scare flicks this cool-weather season. Visualized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and emotionally thick motion picture follows five unacquainted souls who are stirred sealed in a wooded shack under the malignant grip of Kyra, a haunted figure controlled by a biblical-era biblical demon. Steel yourself to be shaken by a screen-based display that merges raw fear with folklore, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is inverted when the demons no longer appear externally, but rather through their own souls. This symbolizes the most hidden side of the protagonists. The result is a gripping inner struggle where the events becomes a constant contest between light and darkness.


In a desolate wild, five youths find themselves cornered under the malicious force and grasp of a obscure apparition. As the companions becomes submissive to break her manipulation, severed and tracked by powers unfathomable, they are forced to endure their emotional phantoms while the countdown without pause edges forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and relationships collapse, requiring each cast member to challenge their core and the notion of self-determination itself. The risk escalate with every instant, delivering a scare-fueled ride that marries mystical fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to evoke core terror, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, filtering through psychological breaks, and wrestling with a spirit that redefines identity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was about accessing something outside normal anguish. She is in denial until the haunting manifests, and that flip is bone-chilling because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing fans from coast to coast can enjoy this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has collected over a viral response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, delivering the story to viewers around the world.


Witness this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these spiritual awakenings about free will.


For exclusive trailers, filmmaker commentary, and updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across entertainment pages and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle stateside slate interlaces legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, set against brand-name tremors

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with primordial scripture all the way to franchise returns alongside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the most dimensioned plus blueprinted year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors bookend the months with familiar IP, concurrently streamers pack the fall with discovery plays set against ancient terrors. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is fueled by the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into 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 adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, the WB camp bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The return delves further into myth, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, courting teens and the thirty something base. It hits in December, buttoning the final window.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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 to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror swings 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 Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming genre season: continuations, non-franchise titles, alongside A Crowded Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror cycle clusters in short order with a January traffic jam, from there stretches through June and July, and pushing into the holidays, weaving series momentum, original angles, and strategic counterweight. Studios and streamers are doubling down on lean spends, cinema-first plans, and short-form initiatives that pivot genre titles into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

The genre has become the sturdy option in release plans, a genre that can lift when it breaks through and still protect the drawdown when it stumbles. After 2023 reassured leaders that lean-budget fright engines can own the national conversation, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The carry carried into 2025, where revived properties and critical darlings proved there is capacity for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a mix of household franchises and new packages, and a sharpened stance on release windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and home streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, provide a easy sell for spots and TikTok spots, and outpace with crowds that appear on advance nights and return through the sophomore frame if the picture pays off. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern indicates certainty in that playbook. The year opens with a front-loaded January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for contrast, while carving room for a late-year stretch that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The program also spotlights the ongoing integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and expand at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and storied titles. Major shops are not just producing another follow-up. They are setting up brand continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that announces a re-angled tone or a lead change that ties a next entry to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the marquee originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a classic-referencing angle without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign anchored in recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through 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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, somber, and premise-first: a grieving man adopts an intelligent companion that turns into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to bring back eerie street stunts and micro spots that blurs companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed 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 branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a visceral, practical-effects forward mix can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror shot that pushes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio movies is selling as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around lore, and practical creature work, elements that can boost premium screens 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 driven by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video balances licensed content with global pickups and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in archive usage, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about first-party entries and festival deals, locking in horror entries near launch and elevating as drops drops with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and prompt platform moves that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will play 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 bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 slate with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to move out. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Watch for 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 precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Known brands versus new stories

By proportion, the 2026 slate favors the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a dual release from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in premium large format. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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 back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind 2026 horror indicate a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is stacked. 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 moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

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 meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 difficult boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power swivels and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 mediates the fear via a little one’s wavering subjective view. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely Check This Out secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundscape, and image-making 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, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. 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, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.