Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across top digital platforms

An hair-raising spiritual thriller from cinematographer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an prehistoric nightmare when strangers become puppets in a malevolent ordeal. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of resilience and ancient evil that will reshape fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Directed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and cinematic feature follows five lost souls who awaken imprisoned in a isolated dwelling under the dark grip of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a ancient holy text monster. Brace yourself to be drawn in by a big screen outing that weaves together soul-chilling terror with folklore, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a historical tradition in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reversed when the monsters no longer descend from elsewhere, but rather from deep inside. This echoes the most primal aspect of every character. The result is a enthralling identity crisis where the events becomes a constant clash between good and evil.


In a abandoned outland, five individuals find themselves confined under the ominous effect and overtake of a unknown spirit. As the group becomes incapable to fight her grasp, severed and pursued by forces impossible to understand, they are thrust to confront their greatest panics while the timeline relentlessly winds toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion mounts and partnerships dissolve, urging each cast member to rethink their core and the concept of free will itself. The cost accelerate with every minute, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together supernatural terror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to extract core terror, an force rooted in antiquity, manifesting in soul-level flaws, and confronting a will that redefines identity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra required summoning something beneath mortal despair. She is innocent until the takeover begins, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving fans anywhere can enjoy this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has earned over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, presenting the nightmare to global fright lovers.


Experience this gripping descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to witness these terrifying truths about free will.


For cast commentary, behind-the-scenes content, and announcements from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit the movie portal.





Contemporary horror’s Turning Point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate interlaces myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, paired with franchise surges

Beginning with life-or-death fear suffused with legendary theology and onward to legacy revivals plus focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the most complex paired with strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios lock in tentpoles with established lines, while OTT services crowd the fall with new voices plus mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is carried on the kinetic energy from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium dread reemerges

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It hits in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Originals: Economy, maximum dread

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 is an astute call. No heavy handed lore. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new chiller release year: installments, universe starters, as well as A loaded Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek The fresh scare cycle lines up in short order with a January wave, following that rolls through midyear, and straight through the holiday frame, balancing brand equity, new concepts, and smart counterplay. Studios with streamers are focusing on efficient budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has turned into the bankable play in studio calendars, a category that can scale when it resonates and still protect the downside when it does not. After 2023 reminded executives that disciplined-budget genre plays can galvanize social chatter, 2024 maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The trend moved into 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is capacity for a spectrum, from franchise continuations to original features that travel well. The takeaway for 2026 is a roster that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with planned clusters, a mix of legacy names and new packages, and a reinvigorated eye on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and OTT platforms.

Executives say the space now performs as a utility player on the schedule. Horror can premiere on many corridors, supply a clean hook for ad units and shorts, and outperform with ticket buyers that turn out on Thursday nights and stick through the follow-up frame if the feature hits. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping exhibits confidence in that model. The calendar launches with a heavy January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a late-year stretch that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The gridline also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is brand curation across linked properties and long-running brands. The studios are not just releasing another next film. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that reconnects a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the top original plays are celebrating physical effects work, special makeup and grounded locations. That combination affords the 2026 check my blog slate a robust balance of known notes and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a succession moment and a rootsy relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a classic-referencing bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on iconic art, first images of characters, and a tiered teaser plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also brings back 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 creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer relief option, this one will seek broad awareness through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format permitting quick adjustments to whatever rules horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate pushes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is clean, somber, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo eerie street stunts and brief clips that mixes intimacy and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele projects are treated as signature events, with a teaser that holds back and a second wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror surge that leans hard into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, carrying a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is presenting as a ground-zero restart 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 players and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around world-building, and creature work, elements that can amplify large-format demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by careful craft and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that boosts both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on the 2026 genre total. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries closer to launch and framing as events debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of precision releases and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to board select projects with established auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence 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 pitch is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, have a peek here but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited runs to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, the 2026 slate tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-flavored turn from a emerging director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is anchored enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years outline the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that held distribution windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they angle differently and elevate 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 two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Production craft signals

The shop talk behind this slate suggest a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster work and world-building, which align with fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. Universal’s 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 atmospheric change-up amid marquee brands. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tone spread gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s AI companion escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric 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 severe boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the pecking order reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that manipulates the fear of a child’s shaky POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed and celebrity-led occult chiller.

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 targets in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. 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 banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor 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 qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.