Mythic Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

This frightening spiritual nightmare movie from creator / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an forgotten curse when outsiders become vehicles in a devilish contest. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful chronicle of living through and timeless dread that will resculpt horror this cool-weather season. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and moody motion picture follows five unknowns who wake up stranded in a remote lodge under the oppressive command of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Get ready to be ensnared by a narrative event that combines visceral dread with ancient myths, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a well-established motif in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is twisted when the entities no longer come from a different plane, but rather inside them. This depicts the most hidden version of the group. The result is a enthralling cognitive warzone where the narrative becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between virtue and vice.


In a unforgiving outland, five friends find themselves contained under the dark control and infestation of a obscure person. As the cast becomes helpless to resist her command, isolated and pursued by entities unimaginable, they are required to endure their worst nightmares while the seconds unforgivingly counts down toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia surges and bonds dissolve, driving each participant to rethink their existence and the principle of autonomy itself. The consequences rise with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that intertwines ghostly evil with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke pure dread, an darkness from ancient eras, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and exposing a curse that peels away humanity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the invasion happens, and that flip is shocking because it is so personal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving customers anywhere can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has pulled in over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this cinematic exploration of dread. Join *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to uncover these terrifying truths about existence.


For director insights, special features, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule interlaces archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Across survival horror steeped in ancient scripture through to legacy revivals plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered in tandem with precision-timed year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Top studios hold down the year with familiar IP, in tandem premium streamers front-load the fall with debut heat plus ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is catching the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, the WB camp releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale led by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. 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. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are more runway than museum.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

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

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. 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. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The 2026 chiller year to come: returning titles, fresh concepts, in tandem with A stacked Calendar designed for screams

Dek The upcoming terror calendar crowds right away with a January cluster, before it unfolds through summer, and running into the festive period, weaving franchise firepower, untold stories, and well-timed counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are betting on mid-range economics, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that shape genre releases into national conversation.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror marketplace has shown itself to be the sturdy move in studio slates, a segment that can scale when it connects and still safeguard the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured decision-makers that disciplined-budget fright engines can galvanize pop culture, the following year held pace with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The carry moved into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is a lane for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the market, with obvious clusters, a blend of brand names and original hooks, and a tightened attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and digital services.

Marketers add the genre now slots in as a fill-in ace on the rollout map. The genre can kick off on open real estate, provide a quick sell for promo reels and shorts, and outstrip with audiences that respond on advance nights and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the movie hits. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping telegraphs trust in that equation. The slate opens with a thick January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while leaving room for a fall corridor that carries into holiday-adjacent weekends and into post-Halloween. The grid also includes the tightening integration of arthouse labels and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, spark evangelism, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A second macro trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and storied titles. The players are not just turning out another return. They are looking to package story carry-over with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a new vibe or a casting choice that anchors a new entry to a original cycle. At the concurrently, the filmmakers behind the eagerly awaited originals are celebrating practical craft, on-set effects and vivid settings. That combination gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of familiarity and discovery, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach signals a fan-service aware approach without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout stacked with legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence timed movies to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an virtual partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay strange in-person beats and micro spots that interlaces longing and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood 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 allows a official title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as director events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has established that a visceral, makeup-driven execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a hard-R summer horror jolt that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both players and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

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 extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by historical precision and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that optimizes both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival buys, timing horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a paired of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clear: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. Watch for 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 as partners, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Brands and originals

By proportion, 2026 favors the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to package each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is comforting enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps frame the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a parallel release from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind these films signal a continued tilt toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes aura and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which lend themselves to expo activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

January is heavy. 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 marquee brands. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s synthetic partner shifts into something perilously amorous. 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 scramble to survive on a remote island as the chain of command upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 family-home haunting chiller that manipulates the unease of a child’s shaky perceptions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed and name-above-title haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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 aggressive PLF bookings without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where lean-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the year flows for audiences

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

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, 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 grain, sound, and visual design 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.