Mythic Dread rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One chilling supernatural scare-fest from scriptwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an archaic evil when newcomers become victims in a fiendish ceremony. Going live October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful saga of perseverance and primordial malevolence that will revolutionize terror storytelling this scare season. Guided by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and cinematic fearfest follows five young adults who suddenly rise trapped in a hidden hideaway under the sinister power of Kyra, a cursed figure controlled by a two-thousand-year-old biblical demon. Prepare to be shaken by a audio-visual experience that intertwines bone-deep fear with mythic lore, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a well-established narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is inverted when the demons no longer emerge beyond the self, but rather internally. This depicts the most sinister dimension of all involved. The result is a harrowing inner struggle where the drama becomes a merciless clash between light and darkness.


In a forsaken no-man's-land, five youths find themselves marooned under the sinister control and spiritual invasion of a enigmatic figure. As the ensemble becomes unable to oppose her power, exiled and pursued by creatures inconceivable, they are obligated to stand before their emotional phantoms while the hours without pity strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and friendships disintegrate, prompting each participant to challenge their values and the notion of personal agency itself. The threat amplify with every second, delivering a paranormal ride that weaves together spiritual fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dive into core terror, an entity before modern man, manipulating emotional fractures, and dealing with a force that tests the soul when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something past sanity. She is insensitive until the invasion happens, and that change is eerie because it is so internal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing fans worldwide can get immersed in this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its intro video, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this gripping exploration of dread. Stream *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to uncover these fearful discoveries about our species.


For film updates, production news, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: 2025 U.S. lineup blends archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, together with returning-series thunder

Moving from pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with legendary theology and extending to returning series paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the most complex and strategic year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios lay down anchors by way of signature titles, at the same time SVOD players front-load the fall with debut heat paired with ancient terrors. On the festival side, the independent cohort is buoyed by the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are precise, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: The Return of Prestige Fear

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

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer tapers, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma as text, along with eerie supernatural rules. The ante is higher this round, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: Tight funds, wide impact

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

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. 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.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No heavy handed lore. No legacy baggage. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, 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.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Trends to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

What’s Next: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. 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. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The approaching terror cycle: next chapters, fresh concepts, paired with A packed Calendar Built For frights

Dek The upcoming scare slate clusters right away with a January pile-up, thereafter extends through the mid-year, and straight through the holiday frame, weaving name recognition, untold stories, and data-minded counterplay. Studios and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that transform these offerings into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has emerged as the dependable tool in studio slates, a genre that can grow when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it does not. After 2023 showed buyers that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize cultural conversation, 2024 maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam carried into 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries showed there is a lane for different modes, from series extensions to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The end result for 2026 is a programming that presents tight coordination across companies, with defined corridors, a mix of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a recommitted commitment on release windows that boost PVOD and platform value on PVOD and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now serves as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can roll out on virtually any date, offer a grabby hook for ad units and TikTok spots, and lead with ticket buyers that respond on Thursday previews and stick through the second frame if the offering connects. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup indicates belief in that model. The calendar gets underway with a thick January band, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a late-year stretch that carries into the fright window and into early November. The gridline also spotlights the continuing integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the timely point.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. The companies are not just making another installment. They are seeking to position lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title treatment that signals a re-angled tone or a lead change that connects a fresh chapter to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the directors behind the most watched originals are favoring practical craft, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That alloy yields 2026 a vital pairing of trust and discovery, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight releases that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, positioning the film as both a baton pass and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a heritage-honoring bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build wide appeal through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever defines the conversation that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, sorrow-tinged, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that becomes a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that melds romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are framed as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, on-set effects led execution can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror hit that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio places two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is calling a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around lore, and creature effects, elements that can increase premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that boosts both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with global pickups and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival wins, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and eventizing premieres with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a tiered of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. 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 in concert, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 skews toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The caveat, as ever, is fatigue. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the cast-creatives package is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps outline the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was big. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind 2026 horror suggest a continued tilt toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes aura and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which are ideal for convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 foggy reset amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 load in summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

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 connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 hard-edged boss fight to survive on a remote island as the power balance inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 home-set haunting scenario that pipes the unease through a youngster’s unreliable internal vantage. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that needles current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 bursts, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household linked to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-core horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback this website slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 releases. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends 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 benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, 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, aural design, and imagery 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.