Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a nerve shredding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on top streamers

An hair-raising metaphysical fear-driven tale from narrative craftsman / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an mythic evil when strangers become puppets in a cursed maze. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking episode of survival and old world terror that will resculpt genre cinema this ghoul season. Directed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and shadowy motion picture follows five people who snap to imprisoned in a isolated shack under the sinister rule of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a prehistoric sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be drawn in by a narrative spectacle that intertwines raw fear with biblical origins, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing concept in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is turned on its head when the dark entities no longer arise outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the most primal corner of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a intense battle between right and wrong.


In a bleak natural abyss, five adults find themselves isolated under the sinister effect and possession of a unknown female figure. As the group becomes powerless to resist her grasp, stranded and preyed upon by unknowns ungraspable, they are confronted to reckon with their worst nightmares while the moments unforgivingly ticks toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear builds and links dissolve, pressuring each character to rethink their self and the notion of decision-making itself. The tension surge with every beat, delivering a terror ride that combines spiritual fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to evoke core terror, an spirit before modern man, manifesting in inner turmoil, and navigating a power that tests the soul when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the demon emerges, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so raw.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing audiences anywhere can dive into this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its release of trailer #1, which has earned over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this visceral exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to survive these dark realities about mankind.


For previews, on-set glimpses, and news from inside the story, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across media channels and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror inflection point: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup integrates primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, plus brand-name tremors

Across pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with near-Eastern lore and including returning series alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the most textured together with tactically planned year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios set cornerstones with familiar IP, concurrently streamers front-load the fall with debut heat plus mythic dread. On another front, the artisan tier is surfing the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot releases the last chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written 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 evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in 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 a calculated bet. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, 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. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 fear release year: next chapters, standalone ideas, alongside A busy Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The brand-new genre year lines up immediately with a January glut, subsequently extends through the summer months, and carrying into the holiday stretch, balancing brand equity, new voices, and well-timed alternatives. Studios and streamers are relying on lean spends, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that frame these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has solidified as the bankable counterweight in studio lineups, a category that can break out when it breaks through and still cushion the losses when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught top brass that efficiently budgeted entries can steer mainstream conversation, the following year carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam flowed into the 2025 frame, where returns and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is room for many shades, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The sum for the 2026 slate is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across companies, with strategic blocks, a blend of familiar brands and new pitches, and a renewed focus on exhibition windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium home window and subscription services.

Planners observe the space now serves as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can debut on virtually any date, provide a sharp concept for creative and social clips, and over-index with fans that turn out on first-look nights and sustain through the second frame if the entry delivers. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 cadence indicates conviction in that engine. The calendar rolls out with a front-loaded January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that connects to All Hallows period and afterwards. The arrangement also illustrates the deeper integration of indie distributors and platforms that can develop over weeks, grow buzz, and move wide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and storied titles. The players are not just turning out another continuation. They are moving to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that links a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are returning to hands-on technique, practical gags and distinct locales. That pairing offers 2026 a vital pairing of trust and novelty, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character-centered film. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a fan-service aware approach without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive fueled by legacy iconography, early character teases, and a tease cadence targeting 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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will emphasize. As a counterweight in summer, this one will generate wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick shifts to whatever tops the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is simple, somber, and easily pitched: a grieving man implements an artificial companion that becomes a perilous partner. The date sets it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back uncanny live moments and short-form creative that mixes longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a final title to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are positioned as auteur events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date offers Universal room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, prosthetic-heavy strategy can feel high-value on a middle budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror rush that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is presenting as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can stoke format premiums and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and trial spikes in the tail. Prime Video blends acquired titles with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on lifetime take. Netflix retains agility about in-house releases and festival grabs, dating horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a selective basis. The platform has signaled readiness to board select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 arc with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. horror The proposition is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate skews toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that maintained windows did not hamper a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution and sets, which lend themselves to booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

January is full. 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 somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes 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 formidable, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

February through May seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s machine mate unfolds into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 demanding boss work to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that routes the horror through a minor’s uneven point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed and marquee-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that teases contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family bound to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. 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-specific language and primordial menace. Rating: pending. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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

Why 2026 lands now

Three hands-on forces define this lineup. First, production that decelerated or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 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 exploit those windows. 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. 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, right-sized allotments, 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 tactility, soundcraft, and image-making 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.