Mythic Terror Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on major platforms

An eerie unearthly suspense film from creator / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an prehistoric nightmare when unknowns become subjects in a malevolent trial. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching chronicle of struggle and age-old darkness that will revolutionize scare flicks this fall. Helmed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and gothic suspense flick follows five individuals who come to imprisoned in a secluded lodge under the hostile control of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a prehistoric biblical force. Steel yourself to be hooked by a screen-based outing that weaves together instinctive fear with ancient myths, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a mainstay foundation in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is challenged when the beings no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather inside their minds. This symbolizes the malevolent dimension of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat cognitive warzone where the tension becomes a constant face-off between righteousness and malevolence.


In a isolated backcountry, five teens find themselves caught under the malevolent control and grasp of a elusive female figure. As the cast becomes vulnerable to withstand her curse, severed and chased by unknowns indescribable, they are required to confront their inner horrors while the clock without pause moves toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion swells and friendships dissolve, pushing each figure to contemplate their values and the structure of conscious will itself. The cost climb with every minute, delivering a frightening tale that harmonizes ghostly evil with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to evoke primitive panic, an evil born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through psychological breaks, and navigating a being that peels away humanity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is clueless until the evil takes hold, and that flip is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be available for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure horror lovers anywhere can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has seen over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, spreading the horror to a global viewership.


Avoid skipping this visceral voyage through terror. Explore *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to dive into these unholy truths about mankind.


For exclusive trailers, production news, and announcements via the production team, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit the official website.





Horror’s tipping point: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts interlaces biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, in parallel with franchise surges

From life-or-death fear grounded in mythic scripture and extending to installment follow-ups alongside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated and strategic year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors bookend the months with known properties, while SVOD players crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside legend-coded dread. At the same time, independent banners is drafting behind the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, though in this cycle, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal opens the year with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Slated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: old school creep, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend with Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

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 Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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 reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

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

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming terror lineup: Sequels, new stories, paired with A packed Calendar designed for shocks

Dek: The upcoming terror year crowds early with a January pile-up, before it flows through June and July, and far into the winter holidays, balancing franchise firepower, novel approaches, and data-minded offsets. Distributors with platforms are committing to mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that convert the slate’s entries into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has solidified as the sturdy tool in annual schedules, a category that can scale when it breaks through and still safeguard the downside when it does not. After 2023 reconfirmed for studio brass that disciplined-budget chillers can drive cultural conversation, the following year continued the surge with auteur-driven buzzy films and surprise hits. The energy flowed into 2025, where revivals and premium-leaning entries highlighted there is a lane for diverse approaches, from series extensions to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a roster that reads highly synchronized across the industry, with strategic blocks, a spread of established brands and fresh ideas, and a revived focus on theatrical windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Insiders argue the horror lane now serves as a schedule utility on the schedule. Horror can kick off on nearly any frame, supply a easy sell for trailers and shorts, and exceed norms with audiences that appear on preview nights and continue through the week two if the movie fires. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout demonstrates belief in that setup. The year kicks off with a crowded January band, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a autumn push that connects to late October and past the holiday. The layout also highlights the greater integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A companion trend is legacy care across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The studios are not just making another continuation. They are setting up lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a tonal shift or a cast configuration that threads a latest entry to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the directors behind the most watched originals are returning to tactile craft, special makeup and distinct locales. That convergence provides 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and novelty, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece plays that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a handoff and a DNA-forward character study. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a fan-service aware campaign without looping the last two entries’ sisters storyline. A campaign is expected fueled by classic imagery, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will chase wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever defines the conversation that spring.

Universal has three specific releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is efficient, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an AI companion that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay eerie street stunts and bite-size content that fuses longing and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that shape mood without have a peek at this web-site giving away the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has established that a in-your-face, in-camera leaning execution can feel deluxe on a middle budget. Expect a splatter summer horror charge that leans into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a fresh restart 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 mission to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can increase PLF interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s releases flow to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the later phase. Prime Video balances imp source third-party pickups with global pickups and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in archive usage, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about originals and festival acquisitions, scheduling horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate 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 moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a theatrical-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, guiding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-driven genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception allows. Expect 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 as partners, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By number, 2026 leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The go-to fix is to pitch each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the bundle is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Three-year comps contextualize the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued emphasis on real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with 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 aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores atmosphere and fear rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which align with fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel key. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. 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 atmospheric change-up amid headline IP. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May set up the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into 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 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s synthetic partner evolves into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 prickly boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the chain of command flips and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s hands-on 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 household haunting narrative that interrogates the fright of a child’s mercurial interpretations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-financed and headline-actor led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. Rating: TBA. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. 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 globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

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

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter 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 dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody Get More Info can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sonics, and visuals 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.