Primordial Dread rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling horror thriller, premiering October 2025 across top streamers

One frightening spiritual suspense film from scriptwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an mythic evil when foreigners become subjects in a dark trial. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing depiction of struggle and age-old darkness that will reconstruct terror storytelling this Halloween season. Directed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and atmospheric feature follows five teens who wake up stuck in a off-grid cabin under the unfriendly will of Kyra, a tormented girl controlled by a antiquated sacrosanct terror. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a immersive presentation that weaves together intense horror with mythic lore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a mainstay fixture in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the forces no longer appear from a different plane, but rather deep within. This mirrors the darkest corner of the group. The result is a harrowing cognitive warzone where the suspense becomes a soul-crushing fight between innocence and sin.


In a remote natural abyss, five youths find themselves isolated under the evil sway and grasp of a mysterious person. As the ensemble becomes unable to evade her control, marooned and pursued by spirits unnamable, they are compelled to acknowledge their core terrors while the moments coldly ticks onward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust grows and partnerships crack, driving each soul to examine their identity and the integrity of decision-making itself. The cost surge with every heartbeat, delivering a nightmarish journey that connects otherworldly panic with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to evoke basic terror, an force beyond time, manifesting in fragile psyche, and dealing with a curse that tests the soul when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that metamorphosis is shocking because it is so unshielded.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring audiences worldwide can survive this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has been viewed over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, extending the thrill to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this visceral journey into fear. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to witness these chilling revelations about our species.


For film updates, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: the year 2025 U.S. Slate melds old-world possession, signature indie scares, stacked beside IP aftershocks

Ranging from survival horror drawn from mythic scripture and onward to IP renewals set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the most dimensioned paired with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. the big studios plant stakes across the year through proven series, in parallel digital services prime the fall with discovery plays set against old-world menace. At the same time, the artisan tier is surfing the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium dread reemerges

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a big gambit: a modernized Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner drops the final chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retro dread, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative with Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches 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 clever angle. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

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

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy IP: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

What to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Projection: Autumn density and winter pivot

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Watch for one or more of these 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 several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new spook calendar year ahead: follow-ups, standalone ideas, together with A jammed Calendar optimized for nightmares

Dek: The fresh terror slate crowds right away with a January traffic jam, and then spreads through summer corridors, and pushing into the December corridor, braiding IP strength, original angles, and data-minded counterplay. Studios and platforms are betting on smart costs, big-screen-first runs, and platform-native promos that convert genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror marketplace has solidified as the most reliable move in studio slates, a corner that can grow when it hits and still buffer the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 signaled to top brass that mid-range entries can command cultural conversation, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The tailwind translated to the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a roster that appears tightly organized across the industry, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of household franchises and original hooks, and a reinvigorated eye on release windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and streaming.

Executives say the category now works like a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can roll out on a wide range of weekends, create a clean hook for promo reels and reels, and over-index with viewers that show up on Thursday nights and keep coming through the next weekend if the title satisfies. On the heels of a production delay era, the 2026 configuration shows confidence in that setup. The slate commences with a stacked January stretch, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a October build that connects to the fright window and into early November. The gridline also underscores the deeper integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can platform and widen, create conversation, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just pushing another entry. They are looking to package brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a new tone or a casting move that links a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are celebrating in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That combination gives the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and invention, which is the formula for international play.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount defines the early cadence with two marquee projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a classic-referencing framework without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, character-first teases, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick switches to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, somber, and commercial: a grieving man installs an digital partner that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate strange in-person beats and snackable content that interweaves intimacy and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books 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 listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a branding reveal to become an fan moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are sold as filmmaker events, with a hinting teaser and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The prime October weekend gives Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, practical-effects forward approach can feel elevated on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that leans into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is billing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can fuel format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with global pickups and small theatrical windows when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in archive usage, using well-timed internal promotions, seasonal hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix films and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries tight to release and eventizing debuts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a laddered of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to buy select projects with top-tier auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 pipeline with two name-brand 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 foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, piloting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to widen. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years make sense of the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that honored streaming windows did not stop a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror punched above its weight in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and raise the stakes. 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 two-step approach, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to hold creative in the market without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries Source indicate a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that leans on mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in feature stories and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that withholds plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that foreground razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is stacked. Universal’s 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 tonal palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited plot reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s virtual companion unfolds into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting story that explores the chill of a child’s tricky perceptions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and star-fronted supernatural 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 satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: navigate here awaiting classification. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. 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 period-specific language and primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or reshuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage turnkey scare beats from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 stealth overachiever 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, 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 spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.