Primeval Evil stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, streaming October 2025 on major streaming services

This haunting ghostly scare-fest from cinematographer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an long-buried force when drifters become puppets in a cursed game. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking episode of perseverance and forgotten curse that will reconstruct the horror genre this scare season. Produced by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and tone-heavy screenplay follows five unacquainted souls who regain consciousness isolated in a unreachable cabin under the menacing grip of Kyra, a cursed figure claimed by a timeless biblical demon. Anticipate to be absorbed by a narrative presentation that harmonizes bodily fright with arcane tradition, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a legendary pillar in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reversed when the demons no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This suggests the shadowy side of the group. The result is a harrowing internal warfare where the suspense becomes a unforgiving battle between virtue and vice.


In a wilderness-stricken wilderness, five campers find themselves marooned under the fiendish dominion and control of a uncanny character. As the group becomes unable to oppose her curse, cut off and stalked by evils unfathomable, they are confronted to confront their darkest emotions while the final hour without pause counts down toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and associations collapse, driving each individual to rethink their personhood and the notion of self-determination itself. The intensity magnify with every minute, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges supernatural terror with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to evoke primitive panic, an entity from prehistory, operating within our fears, and wrestling with a spirit that peels away humanity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that flip is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving horror lovers everywhere can get immersed in this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has collected over six-figure audience.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, presenting the nightmare to thrill-seekers globally.


Don’t miss this unforgettable descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to acknowledge these ghostly lessons about human nature.


For film updates, production news, and news from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across online outlets and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s Turning Point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate melds archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, and returning-series thunder

Ranging from survival horror drawn from legendary theology through to canon extensions as well as incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most dimensioned along with carefully orchestrated year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses hold down the year through proven series, concurrently premium streamers pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs paired with old-world menace. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is surfing the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. Since Halloween is the prized date, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, which means 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

Universal Pictures starts the year with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. timed for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: 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. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re engages, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, buttoning the final window.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story featuring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Scripted and led 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No series drag. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy IP: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
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
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. 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 grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching spook season: entries, universe starters, together with A stacked Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The fresh scare cycle lines up from day one with a January crush, and then flows through the warm months, and well into the holiday stretch, balancing franchise firepower, creative pitches, and smart counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on responsible budgets, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these films into mainstream chatter.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror sector has become the bankable play in distribution calendars, a genre that can grow when it connects and still cushion the losses when it does not. After the 2023 year showed buyers that cost-conscious shockers can galvanize pop culture, the following year held pace with signature-voice projects and under-the-radar smashes. The upswing translated to the 2025 frame, where revived properties and critical darlings made clear there is appetite for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to filmmaker-driven originals that play globally. The takeaway for 2026 is a calendar that shows rare alignment across studios, with obvious clusters, a harmony of brand names and new concepts, and a sharpened attention on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and home streaming.

Buyers contend the horror lane now works like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. The genre can open on virtually any date, supply a grabby hook for marketing and vertical videos, and outstrip with patrons that come out on previews Thursday and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the offering hits. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration telegraphs conviction in that setup. The calendar begins with a loaded January band, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while leaving room for a autumn push that extends to Halloween and past the holiday. The schedule also spotlights the deeper integration of specialized imprints and digital platforms that can grow from platform, generate chatter, and roll out at the optimal moment.

A reinforcing pattern is brand management across linked properties and storied titles. Studio teams are not just turning out another chapter. They are moving to present lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that telegraphs a new tone or a casting pivot that connects a new installment to a early run. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring material texture, physical gags and location-forward worlds. That blend provides 2026 a lively combination of comfort and newness, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight projects that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture conveys a throwback-friendly mode without replaying the last two entries’ sibling arc. Look for a marketing run leaning on signature symbols, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever owns horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tidy, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an AI companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back odd public stunts and quick hits that melds affection and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are set up as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween runway creates space for Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led approach can feel high-value on a tight budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is marketing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and novices. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can fuel premium format interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on historical precision and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that maximizes both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video balances licensed films with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and collection rows to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival deals, securing horror entries toward the drop and framing as events launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of limited theatrical footprints and fast windowing that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important 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+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday slot to move out. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using mini theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By proportion, the 2026 slate tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage marquee value. The trade-off, as ever, is audience fatigue. The practical approach is to present each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a fresh helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the deal build is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns announce the approach. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not block a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they shift POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind 2026 horror point to a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which fit with con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

Month-by-month map

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 winds down navigate to this website 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 thick, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Late winter and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 renewed take that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting tale that interrogates the dread of a child’s wobbly interpretations. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family snared by ancient dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and primordial menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why 2026 and why now

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where 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 exploit those windows. 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 pattern and spread. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundscape, and cinematography 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the screams sell the seats.