Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One unnerving metaphysical fright fest from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an age-old fear when passersby become proxies in a devilish game. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of survival and mythic evil that will redefine horror this October. Realized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five figures who arise stuck in a secluded wooden structure under the unfriendly grip of Kyra, a tormented girl possessed by a legendary holy text monster. Ready yourself to be immersed by a cinematic spectacle that blends soul-chilling terror with timeless legends, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a mainstay theme in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is flipped when the monsters no longer appear from a different plane, but rather from within. This embodies the most sinister element of these individuals. The result is a enthralling spiritual tug-of-war where the suspense becomes a brutal clash between purity and corruption.


In a abandoned forest, five souls find themselves contained under the ominous force and grasp of a shadowy apparition. As the victims becomes unresisting to deny her power, cut off and tracked by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are confronted to wrestle with their emotional phantoms while the timeline mercilessly runs out toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust deepens and friendships collapse, urging each member to evaluate their identity and the philosophy of free will itself. The consequences amplify with every beat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that marries supernatural terror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dig into pure dread, an spirit from prehistory, influencing inner turmoil, and exposing a curse that threatens selfhood when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is uninformed until the haunting manifests, and that change is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing fans no matter where they are can get immersed in this spine-tingling premiere.


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


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, presenting the nightmare to a worldwide audience.


Witness this soul-jarring journey into fear. Experience *Young & Cursed* this launch day to see these terrifying truths about the mind.


For bonus footage, making-of footage, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 stateside slate braids together myth-forward possession, indie terrors, paired with returning-series thunder

Ranging from endurance-driven terror infused with scriptural legend and stretching into returning series paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 looks like the most stratified and strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, concurrently streamers stack the fall with debut heat together with ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is fueled by the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The fall stretch is the proving field, distinctly in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

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

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline rolls out the capstone of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re engages, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed 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 night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

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 canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

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

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming spook lineup: entries, universe starters, alongside A stacked Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The current genre year clusters up front with a January pile-up, from there unfolds through summer corridors, and far into the holiday stretch, marrying series momentum, original angles, and calculated alternatives. Studios and platforms are relying on cost discipline, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the predictable tool in programming grids, a segment that can lift when it clicks and still insulate the liability when it does not. After 2023 showed executives that responsibly budgeted pictures can shape the discourse, the following year held pace with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries showed there is demand for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the market, with obvious clusters, a blend of legacy names and novel angles, and a renewed stance on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now operates like a utility player on the grid. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, create a easy sell for spots and social clips, and over-index with fans that turn out on Thursday nights and stick through the week two if the entry delivers. In the wake of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern telegraphs certainty in that model. The year launches with a loaded January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween corridor and beyond. The schedule also reflects the deeper integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can build gradually, create conversation, and scale up at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across shared universes and veteran brands. Big banners are not just greenlighting another continuation. They are moving to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a new vibe or a casting pivot that binds a next film to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing practical craft, on-set effects and concrete locations. That blend yields 2026 a lively combination of home base and unexpected turns, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight moves that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a classic-referencing angle without going over the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign stacked with heritage visuals, character previews, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate general-audience talk through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that escalates into a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with the Universal machine likely to renew odd public stunts and micro spots that hybridizes attachment and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are sold as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first treatment can feel big on a efficient spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and fresh viewers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around mythos, and monster design, elements that can drive premium format interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror built on obsessive craft and archaic language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that boosts both debut momentum and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video combines outside acquisitions with world buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library engagement, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and featured rows to increase tail value on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival buys, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a tiered of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

Known brands versus new stories

By share, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The question, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Three-year comps help explain the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a day-and-date experiment from performing when the brand was strong. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they rotate perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind 2026 horror point to a continued turn toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights creep and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which work nicely for convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heftier brand moves. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Late winter and spring stage summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps 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 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s algorithmic partner unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January navigate here 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: gothic-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 battle to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting setup that manipulates the chill of a child’s uncertain perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral 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 genre lampoon that teases current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled for 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 spreads, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new clan linked to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming releases. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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 robust premium-format allocation 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 value-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 dark-horse hit 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

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

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.