Primordial Horror awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, streaming October 2025 on global platforms

A unnerving supernatural thriller from dramatist / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primordial dread when unknowns become victims in a supernatural game. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing tale of continuance and old world terror that will revolutionize genre cinema this ghoul season. Directed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy feature follows five individuals who arise caught in a far-off shelter under the menacing grip of Kyra, a mysterious girl possessed by a timeless holy text monster. Steel yourself to be drawn in by a theatrical ride that integrates soul-chilling terror with arcane tradition, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established motif in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is radically shifted when the presences no longer come externally, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the haunting aspect of all involved. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the intensity becomes a unyielding struggle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a desolate landscape, five characters find themselves trapped under the malevolent control and haunting of a obscure spirit. As the ensemble becomes incapacitated to reject her influence, exiled and targeted by spirits indescribable, they are thrust to confront their worst nightmares while the clock without pause runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and bonds collapse, forcing each person to reflect on their character and the nature of volition itself. The tension climb with every minute, delivering a scare-fueled ride that fuses unearthly horror with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to draw upon primal fear, an threat older than civilization itself, channeling itself through our fears, and questioning a curse that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was about accessing something darker than pain. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that pivot is gut-wrenching because it is so visceral.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for streaming beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving streamers internationally can watch this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its initial teaser, which has been viewed over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, exporting the fear to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this haunted descent into darkness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to witness these terrifying truths about mankind.


For previews, filmmaker commentary, and social posts from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s tipping point: the 2025 season U.S. lineup interlaces primeval-possession lore, microbudget gut-punches, paired with tentpole growls

From pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from near-Eastern lore and onward to legacy revivals together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into the most textured together with blueprinted year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Top studios stabilize the year via recognizable brands, concurrently platform operators pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, independent banners is surfing the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are exacting, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: 70s style chill, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It hits in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Franchise Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led 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.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trends to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The oncoming genre Year Ahead: Sequels, Originals, And A packed Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The current scare season stacks immediately with a January logjam, thereafter unfolds through the summer months, and deep into the winter holidays, balancing franchise firepower, new voices, and well-timed alternatives. Distributors with platforms are embracing cost discipline, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that convert these pictures into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has shown itself to be the sturdy counterweight in programming grids, a pillar that can surge when it clicks and still safeguard the losses when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year proved to executives that efficiently budgeted shockers can command audience talk, 2024 extended the rally with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The momentum translated to 2025, where revivals and festival-grade titles confirmed there is space for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The result for the 2026 slate is a roster that presents tight coordination across the field, with clear date clusters, a blend of known properties and novel angles, and a re-energized eye on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and streaming.

Insiders argue the horror lane now works like a utility player on the release plan. Horror can roll out on virtually any date, offer a simple premise for spots and social clips, and punch above weight with moviegoers that appear on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the title connects. Coming out of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores certainty in that dynamic. The year opens with a crowded January run, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while leaving room for a September to October window that carries into the fright window and afterwards. The layout also highlights the tightening integration of specialty distributors and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the proper time.

Another broad trend is brand management across interlocking continuities and established properties. The studios are not just releasing another next film. They are looking to package lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a new tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the directors behind the most watched originals are returning to physical effects work, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That combination gives 2026 a healthy mix of brand comfort and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two headline moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-first story. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a fan-service aware approach without going over the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected driven by franchise iconography, first images of characters, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a counterweight in summer, this one will drive general-audience talk through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever rules the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, somber, and commercial: a grieving man installs an virtual partner that mutates into a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to echo uncanny live moments and micro spots that blurs love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an PR pop closer to the first trailer. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are marketed as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to take 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a gritty, practical-effects forward style can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan get redirected here keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both diehards and casuals. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around canon, and creature effects, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that boosts both initial urgency and sub growth in the later window. Prime Video interleaves library titles with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and programmed rows to extend momentum on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival pickups, securing horror entries toward the drop and framing as events go-lives with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a tiered of precision theatrical plays and accelerated platforming that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to secure select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is direct: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, updated for modern sonics and picture. 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 wide-to-platform plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception encourages. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using select theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, 2026 favors the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use cultural cachet. The caveat, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. 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 double feature plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind these films suggest a continued tilt toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes aura and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature execution and sets, which are ideal for fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that spotlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. 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 quiet contrast amid bigger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can thrive 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 run their PLF course.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that center concept over reveals.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

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

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, grounded in Cronin’s practical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that routes the horror through a preteen’s uneven subjective view. Rating: rating pending. Production: in the can. 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 re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that needles current genre trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family bound to returning horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving forward. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest social-ready stingers from test screenings, movies select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. 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. 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 pattern and spread. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, and cinematography 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, 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.