Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A haunting occult suspense story from literary architect / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient horror when unfamiliar people become proxies in a fiendish conflict. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking story of overcoming and timeless dread that will revamp the horror genre this scare season. Directed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy thriller follows five people who awaken stranded in a remote shack under the ominous grip of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Be prepared to be absorbed by a theatrical experience that fuses soul-chilling terror with ancient myths, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored motif in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the presences no longer arise from a different plane, but rather inside them. This depicts the most sinister element of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the narrative becomes a merciless clash between purity and corruption.


In a abandoned backcountry, five youths find themselves contained under the ghastly sway and curse of a obscure woman. As the youths becomes powerless to evade her control, marooned and followed by forces unimaginable, they are made to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the clock harrowingly ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and associations erode, urging each member to reconsider their essence and the idea of personal agency itself. The stakes amplify with every beat, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to awaken pure dread, an presence that existed before mankind, manipulating mental cracks, and confronting a evil that forces self-examination when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra called for internalizing something more primal than sorrow. She is innocent until the demon emerges, and that evolution is deeply unsettling because it is so visceral.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be released for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering subscribers no matter where they are can be part of this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first trailer, which has pulled in over 100,000 views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, giving access to the movie to thrill-seekers globally.


Make sure to see this unforgettable descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to acknowledge these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For teasers, on-set glimpses, and social posts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit the official movie site.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: 2025 in focus U.S. lineup Mixes biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Moving from survival horror infused with scriptural legend and stretching into legacy revivals and pointed art-house angles, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated along with strategic year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio powerhouses stabilize the year via recognizable brands, simultaneously digital services pack the fall with new voices set against primordial unease. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is propelled by the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, and 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal Pictures starts the year with a bold swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in an immediate now. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer eases, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. 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 an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

What to Watch

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

Body horror ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

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

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. 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 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. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The new fear year to come: installments, original films, as well as A loaded Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The current terror slate lines up early with a January logjam, from there unfolds through summer corridors, and continuing into the year-end corridor, fusing brand equity, inventive spins, and savvy counterweight. Studios and streamers are betting on tight budgets, cinema-first plans, and short-form initiatives that position these pictures into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has become the consistent release in studio lineups, a vertical that can grow when it hits and still limit the floor when it does not. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget fright engines can lead social chatter, the following year sustained momentum with director-led heat and stealth successes. The upswing translated to 2025, where re-entries and critical darlings signaled there is room for diverse approaches, from returning installments to fresh IP that play globally. The takeaway for 2026 is a grid that shows rare alignment across companies, with obvious clusters, a blend of known properties and new concepts, and a refocused eye on theater exclusivity that boost PVOD and platform value on paid VOD and digital services.

Insiders argue the category now slots in as a flex slot on the rollout map. The genre can open on almost any weekend, deliver a easy sell for ad units and reels, and over-index with fans that arrive on previews Thursday and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the entry lands. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan signals trust in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a front-loaded January corridor, then primes spring and early summer for contrast, while keeping space for a September to October window that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and into November. The grid also highlights the continuing integration of arthouse labels and subscription services that can platform and widen, create conversation, and roll out at the proper time.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and long-running brands. The companies are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are aiming to frame lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that signals a new vibe or a ensemble decision that connects a new entry to a initial period. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are championing in-camera technique, physical gags and distinct locales. That alloy hands the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a relay and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach suggests a memory-charged bent without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign anchored in classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through 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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will go after wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, heartbroken, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that grows into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to replay eerie street stunts and bite-size content that blurs companionship and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele projects are treated as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven style can feel premium on a mid-range budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror surge that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is describing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can lift format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s horror titles shift to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a stair-step that optimizes both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video blends licensed films with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, spooky hubs, and curated rows to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix plays opportunist about originals and festival pickups, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops debuts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a two-step of limited theatrical footprints and speedy platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has signaled readiness to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is simple: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, 2026 leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap marquee value. The challenge, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to present each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the bundle is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years announce the method. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that preserved streaming windows did not foreclose a dual release from hitting when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reorient and scale the storytelling. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through relationships and themes and to sustain campaign assets without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights aura and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and produces shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster realization and design, which play well in convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel key. Look for trailers that elevate fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in premium houses.

How the year maps out

January is full. 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 somber counterpoint amid macro-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the palette of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring set up the summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that center concept over reveals.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can play the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s intelligent companion becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 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: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 work to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fear, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 story that frames the panic through a little one’s uncertain POV. Rating: TBA. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: my review here Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that satirizes current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household linked to lingering terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-first horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will jostle across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

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

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome 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 qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sonics, and visual design 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.