Primordial Horror Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on major platforms

This eerie ghostly horror tale from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an timeless evil when outsiders become proxies in a dark ordeal. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of continuance and timeless dread that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this autumn. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and moody film follows five figures who emerge trapped in a wooded dwelling under the malignant control of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be shaken by a cinematic event that fuses primitive horror with legendary tales, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a long-standing element in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is flipped when the entities no longer develop from beyond, but rather from within. This symbolizes the most primal dimension of the victims. The result is a gripping mental war where the story becomes a relentless tug-of-war between right and wrong.


In a remote wilderness, five friends find themselves marooned under the evil dominion and infestation of a unidentified female figure. As the victims becomes paralyzed to fight her manipulation, left alone and attacked by powers mind-shattering, they are compelled to battle their emotional phantoms while the final hour harrowingly edges forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension surges and links disintegrate, compelling each survivor to doubt their essence and the idea of decision-making itself. The stakes escalate with every tick, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines paranormal dread with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to explore primitive panic, an malevolence from ancient eras, influencing fragile psyche, and wrestling with a presence that questions who we are when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was centered on something past sanity. She is insensitive until the demon emerges, and that flip is harrowing because it is so private.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering horror lovers internationally can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has racked up over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, spreading the horror to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this gripping path of possession. Join *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to see these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For cast commentary, set experiences, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets American release plan melds Mythic Possession, Indie Shockers, set against legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror inspired by primordial scripture and extending to brand-name continuations together with surgical indie voices, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified as well as strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors bookend the months using marquee IP, concurrently digital services crowd the fall with fresh voices alongside scriptural shivers. At the same time, the independent cohort is buoyed by the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline opens the year with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Guided by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer wanes, the WB camp drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It hits in December, buttoning the final window.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. 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. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a clever angle. No overinflated mythology. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

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

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming fright calendar year ahead: brand plays, universe starters, and also A loaded Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek: The incoming terror year clusters early with a January crush, then extends through summer corridors, and deep into the winter holidays, combining brand equity, inventive spins, and calculated counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and viral-minded pushes that elevate these pictures into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has established itself as the bankable tool in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it lands and still buffer the drawdown when it misses. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that low-to-mid budget entries can shape the national conversation, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The carry fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is appetite for a spectrum, from series extensions to original one-offs that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a blend of legacy names and new pitches, and a re-energized eye on theater exclusivity that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Marketers add the horror lane now operates like a plug-and-play option on the schedule. Horror can launch on many corridors, furnish a quick sell for previews and shorts, and outstrip with ticket buyers that turn out on early shows and keep coming through the second weekend if the title works. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm signals belief in that model. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January window, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a September to October window that flows toward Halloween and afterwards. The program also underscores the ongoing integration of indie distributors and streamers that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and expand at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just pushing another installment. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that bridges a latest entry to a early run. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are prioritizing real-world builds, in-camera effects and grounded locations. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and freshness, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline plays that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a classic-mode character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach telegraphs a fan-service aware bent without retreading the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign stacked with heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will feature. As a summer contrast play, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick shifts to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that turns into a deadly partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to reprise odd public stunts and bite-size content that blurs affection and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an headline beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a gritty, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel premium on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is positioning as a ground-zero 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 explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around lore, and monster craft, elements that can stoke premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a sequence that optimizes both week-one demand and subscriber lifts in the tail. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the click to read more data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on the horror cume. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival additions, scheduling horror entries tight to release and turning into events rollouts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a paired of limited theatrical footprints and quick platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is structuring 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. The pitch is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception drives. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, 2026 favors the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap household recognition. The question, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a continental coloration from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is assuring enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps outline the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a parallel release from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror surged in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind these films forecast a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature work and production design, which fit with fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that elevate disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

January is stacked. 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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks 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 bereaved man’s virtual companion mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 intimate haunting chiller that channels the fear through a little one’s volatile POV. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-financed and star-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A parody reboot that riffs on in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shoot planned 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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family lashed to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: pending. Production: underway. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 time-true diction and primordial menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday 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, audio design, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.