Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This hair-raising paranormal shockfest from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an timeless fear when strangers become pawns in a diabolical trial. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving chronicle of staying alive and archaic horror that will remodel the horror genre this spooky time. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy thriller follows five unacquainted souls who find themselves confined in a far-off structure under the unfriendly will of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a prehistoric biblical force. Be prepared to be ensnared by a big screen ride that unites visceral dread with ancestral stories, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a iconic fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is twisted when the malevolences no longer emerge from an outside force, but rather from their psyche. This suggests the most primal aspect of the cast. The result is a enthralling moral showdown where the tension becomes a brutal fight between right and wrong.


In a remote backcountry, five individuals find themselves isolated under the ghastly sway and spiritual invasion of a unidentified person. As the youths becomes paralyzed to withstand her influence, marooned and followed by evils unfathomable, they are compelled to endure their raw vulnerabilities while the time without pity counts down toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension builds and teams dissolve, driving each cast member to contemplate their values and the idea of independent thought itself. The tension climb with every fleeting time, delivering a chilling narrative that blends spiritual fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to evoke primal fear, an darkness that existed before mankind, manipulating soul-level flaws, and navigating a will that dismantles free will when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant channeling something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the takeover begins, and that flip is shocking because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that fans in all regions can witness this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has seen over notable views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to a worldwide audience.


Make sure to see this gripping spiral into evil. Experience *Young & Cursed* this launch day to explore these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For sneak peeks, special features, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit the movie’s homepage.





Current horror’s Turning Point: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts braids together ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, plus returning-series thunder

Running from last-stand terror infused with scriptural legend and onward to legacy revivals in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the most complex combined with calculated campaign year in years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. leading studios hold down the year with known properties, in parallel SVOD players load up the fall with unboxed visions in concert with ancestral chills. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the uplift of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer tapers, the WB camp rolls out the capstone inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy IP: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops 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 adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Laurels convert to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

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.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The 2026 fear Year Ahead: returning titles, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek: The new terror year loads immediately with a January pile-up, after that carries through June and July, and continuing into the winter holidays, fusing name recognition, untold stories, and data-minded alternatives. Studios and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that shape genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has solidified as the surest option in distribution calendars, a category that can grow when it performs and still buffer the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 signaled to top brass that efficiently budgeted shockers can dominate audience talk, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The carry pushed into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films made clear there is a market for different modes, from returning installments to director-led originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a roster that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with planned clusters, a balance of familiar brands and original hooks, and a refocused priority on theater exclusivity that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and digital services.

Planners observe the category now acts as a schedule utility on the slate. Horror can premiere on virtually any date, create a clean hook for teasers and TikTok spots, and overperform with crowds that appear on opening previews and hold through the subsequent weekend if the picture pays off. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration reflects trust in that dynamic. The year commences with a loaded January block, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the Halloween frame and into early November. The map also highlights the expanded integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and broaden at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and classic IP. The companies are not just making another return. They are moving to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a new tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a next entry to a original cycle. At the same time, the directors behind the top original plays are celebrating tactile craft, physical gags and place-driven backdrops. That interplay yields 2026 a solid mix of assurance and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile plays that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a nostalgia-forward approach without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will seek wide buzz through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that mutates into a lethal partner. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and brief clips that mixes companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s pictures are positioned as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, makeup-driven strategy can feel cinematic on a controlled budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying a evergreen supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is positioning as a clean-slate approach 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 clearer mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around canon, and monster craft, elements that can lift premium screens and fan-forward engagement.

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 continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in careful craft and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform tactics for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ladder that optimizes both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and featured rows to prolong the run on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival pickups, confirming horror entries near launch and making event-like arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for retention when the genre conversation surges.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is direct: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, reimagined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to open out. That positioning has shown results for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using mini theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, 2026 bends toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is assuring enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the method. In 2023, a theater-first model that maintained windows did not foreclose a day-date try from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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 lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. 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 macro-brand pushes. The month closes 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 serious, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s Young & Cursed intelligent companion shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 claw to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, founded on Cronin’s tactile craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting chiller that plays with the dread of a child’s uncertain perceptions. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that needles contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a unlucky family entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter schedules. 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 great post to read sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 midrange-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, Young & Cursed sound field, 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.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand power where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.