Antediluvian Horror emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, rolling out October 2025 on major streaming services

An unnerving supernatural shockfest from scriptwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an archaic force when foreigners become tokens in a diabolical ritual. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish journey of resistance and archaic horror that will redefine the fear genre this ghoul season. Brought to life by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and cinematic screenplay follows five unacquainted souls who suddenly rise stranded in a secluded shelter under the dark command of Kyra, a tormented girl dominated by a legendary ancient fiend. Get ready to be ensnared by a audio-visual event that weaves together intense horror with biblical origins, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a enduring pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the monsters no longer emerge from an outside force, but rather from deep inside. This represents the darkest element of all involved. The result is a gripping inner struggle where the emotions becomes a relentless confrontation between good and evil.


In a isolated terrain, five campers find themselves confined under the possessive grip and domination of a secretive female figure. As the characters becomes paralyzed to escape her dominion, left alone and stalked by beings beyond reason, they are driven to confront their emotional phantoms while the moments unceasingly runs out toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and relationships break, prompting each participant to evaluate their self and the philosophy of autonomy itself. The threat amplify with every instant, delivering a scare-fueled ride that integrates unearthly horror with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into instinctual horror, an entity from prehistory, manipulating fragile psyche, and highlighting a will that tests the soul when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra involved tapping into something past sanity. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that conversion is deeply unsettling because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing streamers across the world can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has garnered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Avoid skipping this life-altering journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this launch day to uncover these terrifying truths about free will.


For featurettes, special features, and announcements from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: the year 2025 U.S. Slate interlaces myth-forward possession, underground frights, paired with series shake-ups

Kicking off with survivor-centric dread suffused with scriptural legend all the way to legacy revivals together with focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the most complex combined with strategic year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners bookend the months through proven series, while OTT services front-load the fall with emerging auteurs set against primordial unease. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is riding the kinetic energy of a banner 2024 fest year. Since Halloween is the prized date, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are precise, therefore 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: throwback unease, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It hits in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Platform originals gain bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Season Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The approaching chiller calendar year ahead: Sequels, standalone ideas, plus A brimming Calendar engineered for chills

Dek: The upcoming terror cycle stacks early with a January wave, thereafter stretches through June and July, and carrying into the December corridor, mixing name recognition, creative pitches, and savvy alternatives. Distributors with platforms are betting on smart costs, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that position horror entries into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the most reliable release in studio calendars, a pillar that can expand when it resonates and still cushion the losses when it stumbles. After 2023 proved to strategy teams that efficiently budgeted fright engines can own mainstream conversation, 2024 kept energy high with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry rolled into 2025, where revivals and prestige plays confirmed there is room for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the industry, with intentional bunching, a spread of established brands and fresh ideas, and a revived attention on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now performs as a wildcard on the slate. The genre can kick off on most weekends, supply a simple premise for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with demo groups that lean in on preview nights and continue through the week two if the entry delivers. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern telegraphs certainty in that approach. The calendar begins with a weighty January corridor, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a October build that reaches into Halloween and past the holiday. The map also illustrates the greater integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and expand at the precise moment.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across unified worlds and heritage properties. The studios are not just mounting another entry. They are working to present continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a graphic identity that suggests a new vibe or a cast configuration that binds a next Check This Out entry to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating in-camera technique, physical gags and concrete locations. That mix hands the 2026 slate a smart balance of familiarity and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline entries that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a relay and a classic-mode character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a roots-evoking bent without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout rooted in franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate wide appeal through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever owns the discourse that spring.

Universal has three unique lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, tragic, and concept-forward: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror creepy live activations and micro spots that mixes romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s releases are framed as event films, with a minimalist tease and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has proven that a visceral, physical-effects centered method can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror shot that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is billing as a new foundation 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 franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal titles land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that boosts both initial urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, spooky hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival deals, confirming horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around go-lives with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with acclaimed directors or name-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, reimagined for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 wide-to-platform plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then using the holiday frame to increase reach. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited runs to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, 2026 bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use fan equity. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

The last three-year set clarify the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept clean windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they pivot perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate telegraph a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on texture and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which align with convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel key. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is crowded. 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 atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges 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 comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a opaque tease strategy and limited asset reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. 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 bereaved man’s intelligent companion escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable 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 tough boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, grounded in Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that leverages the fright of a child’s wobbly perceptions. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and star-fronted ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satire sequel that pokes at hot-button genre motifs and true-crime buzz. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household tethered to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev this content phase with date secured. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and ancient menace. Rating: pending. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, clearing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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 surprise-hit pursuit 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. 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 smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value 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 justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sonics, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.