Primordial Evil surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled shocker, launching October 2025 on major streaming services

This blood-curdling supernatural suspense story from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an ancient evil when unrelated individuals become conduits in a cursed conflict. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing episode of perseverance and primordial malevolence that will reconstruct horror this fall. Created by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and tone-heavy tale follows five unknowns who are stirred ensnared in a unreachable cabin under the hostile influence of Kyra, a troubled woman dominated by a 2,000-year-old Old Testament spirit. Be warned to be gripped by a immersive adventure that merges gut-punch terror with mystical narratives, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a long-standing fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is redefined when the demons no longer come from external sources, but rather internally. This symbolizes the deepest side of the players. The result is a intense inner struggle where the emotions becomes a brutal push-pull between righteousness and malevolence.


In a isolated terrain, five adults find themselves sealed under the possessive rule and overtake of a uncanny woman. As the ensemble becomes submissive to evade her will, abandoned and pursued by evils mind-shattering, they are compelled to deal with their deepest fears while the time without pity counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear mounts and connections collapse, requiring each individual to evaluate their personhood and the notion of free will itself. The risk magnify with every passing moment, delivering a nightmarish journey that integrates mystical fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke ancestral fear, an curse older than civilization itself, emerging via our fears, and challenging a force that challenges autonomy when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra required summoning something far beyond human desperation. She is insensitive until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is deeply unsettling because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure subscribers in all regions can witness this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has garnered over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, making the film to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering fall into madness. Join *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to survive these ghostly lessons about existence.


For cast commentary, making-of footage, and promotions via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s Turning Point: 2025 U.S. calendar integrates Mythic Possession, indie terrors, set against brand-name tremors

From survivor-centric dread saturated with primordial scripture through to series comebacks together with acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered paired with blueprinted year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, simultaneously subscription platforms front-load the fall with unboxed visions in concert with legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, independent banners is propelled by the uplift of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween holding the peak, the other windows are mapped with care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and those signature textures resurface: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Economy, maximum dread

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 spook slate: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, together with A Crowded Calendar optimized for nightmares

Dek: The brand-new genre season loads right away with a January glut, following that rolls through the summer months, and far into the holiday stretch, blending IP strength, fresh ideas, and tactical alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that shape these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has turned into the predictable release in release plans, a vertical that can spike when it clicks and still mitigate the liability when it misses. After 2023 showed executives that efficiently budgeted pictures can drive the national conversation, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is an opening for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The result for 2026 is a lineup that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with intentional bunching, a mix of familiar brands and novel angles, and a reinvigorated eye on theater exclusivity that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital and home platforms.

Executives say the horror lane now serves as a plug-and-play option on the grid. Horror can bow on numerous frames, furnish a clear pitch for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with moviegoers that turn out on preview nights and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the film lands. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup reflects trust in that playbook. The calendar rolls out with a stacked January band, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a fall run that runs into spooky season and into November. The program also illustrates the greater integration of indie distributors and streamers that can stage a platform run, fuel WOM, and roll out at the proper time.

A second macro trend is brand management across shared universes and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just turning out another continuation. They are aiming to frame lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a art treatment that suggests a new vibe or a ensemble decision that connects a fresh chapter to a classic era. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the marquee originals are returning to hands-on technique, real effects and grounded locations. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of Source trust and shock, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket entries that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, positioning the film as both a baton pass and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a nostalgia-forward approach without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Count on a promo wave anchored in legacy iconography, character previews, and a rollout cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an AI companion that mutates into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that interweaves intimacy and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend gives Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a tactile, in-camera leaning strategy can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror blast that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a dependable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is billing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both devotees and first-timers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build marketing units around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by careful craft and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both premiere heat and platform bumps in the tail. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays nimble about in-house releases and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and framing as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a cinema-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception encourages. Anticipate 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 in concert, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, 2026 skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from a rising filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects 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, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set announce the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with imp source 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind these films signal a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature execution and sets, which play well in convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the menu of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. 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 supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into 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 comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion evolves into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the pecking order inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that threads the dread through a youth’s shifting POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A send-up revival that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household caught in older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three hands-on forces structure this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will line up across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 modest-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 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 pattern and spread. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, 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 compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and picture 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, Lined Up To Scare

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.