Primeval Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 on top streamers

An hair-raising spiritual shockfest from author / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an age-old horror when unknowns become pawns in a malevolent maze. Going live October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching chronicle of staying alive and archaic horror that will reconstruct terror storytelling this scare season. Visualized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and atmospheric tale follows five strangers who wake up confined in a unreachable hideaway under the malignant command of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a two-thousand-year-old sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be immersed by a big screen outing that unites bone-deep fear with spiritual backstory, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a mainstay fixture in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is twisted when the fiends no longer form externally, but rather through their own souls. This symbolizes the most hidden facet of the cast. The result is a riveting spiritual tug-of-war where the intensity becomes a perpetual contest between heaven and hell.


In a isolated wild, five souls find themselves sealed under the ominous effect and curse of a enigmatic entity. As the survivors becomes incapable to break her grasp, isolated and pursued by beings unnamable, they are pushed to reckon with their core terrors while the deathwatch ruthlessly moves toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and associations collapse, urging each soul to examine their self and the foundation of self-determination itself. The threat grow with every heartbeat, delivering a paranormal ride that merges unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to tap into elemental fright, an evil that existed before mankind, manipulating emotional fractures, and challenging a being that threatens selfhood when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something deeper than fear. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that flip is bone-chilling because it is so unshielded.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that viewers from coast to coast can survive this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original promo, which has garnered over six-figure audience.


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


Tune in for this heart-stopping descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to uncover these ghostly lessons about the human condition.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and announcements from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





The horror genre’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 season domestic schedule fuses old-world possession, signature indie scares, set against tentpole growls

Across endurance-driven terror rooted in near-Eastern lore and onward to series comebacks alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is tracking to be the richest as well as intentionally scheduled year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios plant stakes across the year with known properties, even as platform operators prime the fall with emerging auteurs alongside ancestral chills. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is carried on the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. 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.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retro dread, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated canon. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror ascends again
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
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is 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.

What’s Next: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: brand plays, universe starters, and also A loaded Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The incoming terror year clusters early with a January crush, then rolls through summer corridors, and well into the December corridor, fusing name recognition, novel approaches, and tactical counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, 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 surest play in release plans, a genre that can surge when it catches and still hedge the drag when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for decision-makers that modestly budgeted chillers can lead social chatter, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and unexpected risers. The tailwind translated to the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries showed there is appetite for a spectrum, from series extensions to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with planned clusters, a spread of brand names and fresh ideas, and a revived focus on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and platforms.

Executives say the category now acts as a swing piece on the grid. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, deliver a grabby hook for trailers and social clips, and outpace with viewers that respond on preview nights and stay strong through the next pass if the release hits. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence underscores assurance in that logic. The slate opens with a front-loaded January band, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a late-year stretch that flows toward the fright window and into early November. The map also shows the greater integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can grow from platform, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the proper time.

An added macro current is legacy care across shared IP webs and storied titles. Major shops are not just turning out another return. They are moving to present lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a new vibe or a casting pivot that binds a next film to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the top original plays are returning to practical craft, on-set effects and Source concrete locations. That blend yields 2026 a lively combination of known notes and unexpected turns, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate moves that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a nostalgia-forward framework without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through 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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mass reach through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three defined strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that shifts into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that hybridizes companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are treated as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a tactile, in-camera leaning mix can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror hit that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around lore, and monster design, elements that can lift premium booking interest and convention buzz.

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 continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already locked the day for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that elevates both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using featured rows, October hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival grabs, slotting horror entries closer to drop and making event-like debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to take on select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor 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 tight: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled 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. The distributor has indicated a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception encourages. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The go-to fix is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering 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 European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps help explain the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept streaming intact did not hamper a day-date try from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they alter lens and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to thread films through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without long gaps.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind the year’s horror indicate a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which align with con floor moments and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is packed. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the menu of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s artificial companion evolves into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command tilts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to horror, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that frames the panic through a young child’s volatile internal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and A-list fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that targets modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 detonates, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on classic survival-horror tone over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. 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: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. 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 time-true diction and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 search for sleepers 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, and camera work 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 Shapes Up Strong

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.