Antediluvian Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across top digital platforms

One bone-chilling ghostly thriller from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an mythic force when unfamiliar people become conduits in a diabolical experiment. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of survival and age-old darkness that will resculpt horror this scare season. Directed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic thriller follows five unacquainted souls who arise isolated in a off-grid structure under the unfriendly will of Kyra, a troubled woman dominated by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Be prepared to be hooked by a cinematic journey that blends visceral dread with spiritual backstory, releasing 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 theme in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is radically shifted when the fiends no longer develop externally, but rather from deep inside. This marks the most terrifying dimension of each of them. The result is a harrowing cognitive warzone where the events becomes a constant fight between virtue and vice.


In a forsaken outland, five campers find themselves isolated under the fiendish presence and infestation of a haunted character. As the ensemble becomes helpless to evade her manipulation, detached and pursued by terrors mind-shattering, they are required to confront their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds brutally runs out toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion rises and relationships erode, pressuring each figure to examine their true nature and the notion of decision-making itself. The hazard grow with every short lapse, delivering a scare-fueled ride that connects ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dig into raw dread, an malevolence rooted in antiquity, emerging via fragile psyche, and highlighting a will that dismantles free will when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra asked for exploring something unfamiliar to reason. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that shift is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving watchers everywhere can survive this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, presenting the nightmare to a worldwide audience.


Don’t miss this mind-warping path of possession. Experience *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to confront these fearful discoveries about the human condition.


For film updates, behind-the-scenes content, and updates directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s decisive shift: 2025 American release plan interlaces legend-infused possession, microbudget gut-punches, and series shake-ups

Kicking off with survival horror grounded in old testament echoes to returning series in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the richest together with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios bookend the months through proven series, while OTT services stack the fall with debut heat as well as archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is riding the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. The bar is raised this go, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written 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 the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

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

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

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

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

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, from Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next fear Year Ahead: brand plays, standalone ideas, plus A hectic Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The arriving scare year clusters early with a January crush, then rolls through the mid-year, and straight through the holiday stretch, marrying marquee clout, new voices, and well-timed alternatives. The major players are relying on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that frame genre releases into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

This category has grown into the consistent lever in studio slates, a category that can scale when it connects and still limit the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that low-to-mid budget scare machines can shape the national conversation, the following year carried the beat with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The run fed into 2025, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries underscored there is a market for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that export nicely. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across studios, with obvious clusters, a pairing of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a tightened commitment on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on paid VOD and subscription services.

Planners observe the horror lane now behaves like a versatile piece on the slate. The genre can arrive on a wide range of weekends, deliver a clean hook for marketing and reels, and over-index with moviegoers that arrive on Thursday nights and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the title lands. Coming out of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 mapping underscores faith in that engine. The year commences with a stacked January window, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a autumn stretch that carries into the Halloween corridor and into November. The map also includes the ongoing integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can nurture a platform play, generate chatter, and broaden at the right moment.

An added macro current is legacy care across ongoing universes and legacy franchises. The studios are not just producing another next film. They are moving to present lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that binds a latest entry to a initial period. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing real-world builds, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That interplay delivers 2026 a solid mix of familiarity and newness, which is what works overseas.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount opens strong with two centerpiece moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a fan-service aware angle without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign centered on recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will drive large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick updates to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, soulful, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that fuses intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. The filmmaker’s films are positioned as creative events, with a opaque teaser and a follow-up trailer set that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-month date lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a gritty, prosthetic-heavy method can feel high-value on a lean spend. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror charge that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is marketing as a reimagined 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 franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

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

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal titles head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that maximizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in archive usage, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate 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 promise is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a cinema-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-first horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception warrants. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By proportion, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The practical click to read more approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the configuration is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps help explain the plan. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not block a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel new when they rotate perspective 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft conversations behind these films signal a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that underscores creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which work nicely for convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. 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 brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven 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 prickly boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 household haunting tale that manipulates the panic of a child’s fragile interpretations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-supported and marquee-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at current genre trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. this page domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a unlucky family caught in old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. 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 period language and primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

The slot calculus is real. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where low-to-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 momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you 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 warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, and camera work 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 Is Well Positioned

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.