Mythic Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, bowing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An frightening otherworldly suspense film from narrative craftsman / director Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primordial nightmare when drifters become proxies in a dark ceremony. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing depiction of overcoming and mythic evil that will alter the horror genre this season. Brought to life by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and eerie fearfest follows five unknowns who find themselves confined in a isolated hideaway under the ominous control of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a 2,000-year-old biblical demon. Be warned to be gripped by a theatrical display that combines bone-deep fear with ancestral stories, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a historical fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the monsters no longer form from an outside force, but rather from their core. This symbolizes the deepest element of all involved. The result is a emotionally raw internal warfare where the narrative becomes a relentless battle between good and evil.


In a wilderness-stricken forest, five youths find themselves caught under the ominous force and curse of a uncanny apparition. As the victims becomes powerless to evade her will, disconnected and tracked by spirits ungraspable, they are made to encounter their inner demons while the doomsday meter relentlessly strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust rises and friendships collapse, urging each person to rethink their self and the principle of volition itself. The hazard amplify with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that blends occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to uncover primal fear, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, emerging via inner turmoil, and dealing with a entity that dismantles free will when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra asked for exploring something darker than pain. She is uninformed until the haunting manifests, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering fans across the world can face this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has garnered over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, presenting the nightmare to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to experience these dark realities about free will.


For previews, making-of footage, and news from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the movie’s homepage.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: the year 2025 U.S. release slate Mixes ancient-possession motifs, independent shockers, and tentpole growls

Kicking off with life-or-death fear grounded in mythic scripture and including returning series in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered along with precision-timed year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Major studios hold down the year with familiar IP, while subscription platforms saturate the fall with new perspectives as well as primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, independent banners is buoyed by the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A fat September–October lane is customary now, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, so 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a big gambit: a refashioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its bankable horror series: 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. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: old school creep, trauma in the foreground, along with eerie supernatural rules. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused 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.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. 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 brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming scare lineup: entries, fresh concepts, paired with A jammed Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The emerging scare season lines up from the jump with a January pile-up, subsequently spreads through midyear, and running into the holiday frame, balancing brand heft, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterplay. Studios and streamers are doubling down on tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that frame genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This space has turned into the most reliable counterweight in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it performs and still buffer the downside when it under-delivers. After 2023 reconfirmed for decision-makers that modestly budgeted chillers can own social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where resurrections and critical darlings highlighted there is capacity for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to original features that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a reinvigorated stance on theatrical windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now performs as a versatile piece on the slate. The genre can debut on virtually any date, yield a easy sell for spots and TikTok spots, and outpace with crowds that appear on advance nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the feature connects. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup signals faith in that setup. The slate begins with a weighty January band, then plants flags in spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while reserving space for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween corridor and beyond. The calendar also shows the ongoing integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and expand at the right moment.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across interlocking continuities and established properties. The companies are not just releasing another entry. They are working to present continuity with a occasion, whether that is a logo package that conveys a recalibrated tone or a talent selection that connects a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing physical effects work, real effects and distinct locales. That pairing delivers 2026 a lively combination of known notes and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a roots-evoking treatment without retreading the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout built on iconic art, initial cast looks, and a tiered teaser plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build wide appeal through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick switches to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from my company the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that escalates into a fatal companion. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to recreate viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that fuses intimacy and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are positioned as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that define feel without revealing the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor lets the studio to lead 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led aesthetic can feel prestige on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror surge that leans into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is marketing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal titles feed copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that enhances both launch urgency and platform bumps in the later window. Prime Video interleaves catalogue additions with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival snaps, scheduling horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a two-step of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with established auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 arc with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clear: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, curating the rollout through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday slot to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception supports. Watch 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 in parallel, using mini theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their membership.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on marquee value. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to pitch each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is anchored enough to build pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the method. In 2023, a theater-first model that respected streaming windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to cross-link entries through character arcs and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta recalibration that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which align with con floor moments and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the menu of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s 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 was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that elevate concept over story.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. 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 widowed man’s algorithmic partner unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 domestic haunting setup that channels the fear through a preteen’s uneven point of view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-financed and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that needles current genre trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household snared by residual nightmares. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: active. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that decelerated or recalendared in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest bite-size scare clips from test screenings, metered scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, 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 pattern and spread. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, aural design, and imagery 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.