Primeval Horror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

This eerie unearthly scare-fest from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primeval curse when unknowns become conduits in a diabolical ritual. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of staying alive and timeless dread that will reimagine scare flicks this fall. Helmed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and gothic feature follows five unknowns who snap to caught in a off-grid dwelling under the malignant command of Kyra, a troubled woman overtaken by a biblical-era sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be captivated by a big screen journey that blends gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a recurring pillar in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is radically shifted when the beings no longer come externally, but rather deep within. This illustrates the grimmest version of these individuals. The result is a edge-of-seat spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a soul-crushing clash between heaven and hell.


In a unforgiving wild, five teens find themselves cornered under the ominous effect and possession of a enigmatic entity. As the ensemble becomes unresisting to evade her rule, stranded and targeted by presences beyond reason, they are forced to endure their greatest panics while the seconds unceasingly counts down toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion deepens and links shatter, pressuring each person to reconsider their personhood and the structure of conscious will itself. The danger rise with every fleeting time, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that combines otherworldly suspense with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to extract raw dread, an malevolence rooted in antiquity, manifesting in psychological breaks, and navigating a darkness that redefines identity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is ignorant until the evil takes hold, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so close.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring customers around the globe can watch this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has earned over 100K plays.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, spreading the horror to horror fans worldwide.


Make sure to see this gripping trip into the unknown. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to face these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For film updates, filmmaker commentary, and alerts from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your socials and visit our spooky domain.





American horror’s sea change: the year 2025 U.S. lineup interlaces myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, set against brand-name tremors

Running from grit-forward survival fare rooted in legendary theology and extending to brand-name continuations set beside pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the most complex as well as calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

Call it full, but it is also focused. leading studios stabilize the year with established lines, in tandem platform operators crowd the fall with discovery plays and ancestral chills. On another front, festival-forward creators is catching the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the other windows are mapped with care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal fires the first shot with a headline swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, the WB camp bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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 an astute call. No swollen lore. No legacy baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The oncoming terror lineup: returning titles, standalone ideas, alongside A loaded Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The arriving terror cycle builds from the jump with a January cluster, then unfolds through the warm months, and well into the late-year period, marrying series momentum, new concepts, and calculated counterprogramming. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on smart costs, theatrical leads, and viral-minded pushes that shape these releases into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has become the predictable counterweight in release strategies, a space that can spike when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that disciplined-budget pictures can galvanize social chatter, 2024 extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and critical darlings underscored there is a market for several lanes, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a programming that is strikingly coherent across companies, with purposeful groupings, a mix of familiar brands and original hooks, and a sharpened strategy on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now operates like a swing piece on the schedule. The genre can debut on virtually any date, offer a sharp concept for marketing and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with moviegoers that show up on Thursday previews and sustain through the sophomore frame if the release fires. After a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm shows faith in that playbook. The year commences with a loaded January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a October build that flows toward the Halloween corridor and beyond. The map also highlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and widen at the right moment.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared IP webs and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just rolling another entry. They are seeking to position connection with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a tonal shift or a star attachment that links a incoming chapter to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are returning to in-camera technique, on-set effects and specific settings. That combination provides 2026 a lively combination of brand comfort and discovery, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two marquee entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the spine, setting it up as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a nostalgia-forward angle without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push leaning on brand visuals, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will build wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date positions it at the front of a thick month, with the studio’s marketing likely to recreate uncanny live moments and brief clips that fuses affection and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a name unveil to become an earned moment closer to the initial 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 grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are set up as director events, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, physical-effects centered style can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror shot that leans hard into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is billing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and new audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can boost format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places 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 centered on obsessive craft and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that amplifies both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the downstream. Prime Video interleaves third-party pickups with worldwide buys and limited runs in theaters when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with award winners or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has worked well for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception drives. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using small theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By proportion, 2026 leans in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a continental coloration from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add air. 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, puts Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is anchored enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was potent. In 2024, art-forward horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reframe POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries signal a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that foregrounds tone and tension rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-aware reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which favor fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that elevate disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the palette of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months build the summer base. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect 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.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into have a peek here Halloween weekend, likely supported by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss struggle to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic shifts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 retelling that returns the monster to terror, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that threads the dread through a youth’s uneven point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 comic send-up that pokes at current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated 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 bursts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household tethered to ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. 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: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and elemental fear. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that stalled or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, 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 visual texture, acoustics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a click to read more calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, shape lean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.