Primeval Dread awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across premium platforms

One unnerving metaphysical shockfest from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an mythic dread when newcomers become instruments in a devilish struggle. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of endurance and archaic horror that will revamp scare flicks this harvest season. Helmed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and tone-heavy fearfest follows five figures who emerge locked in a wooded cabin under the ominous will of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a narrative journey that fuses bodily fright with arcane tradition, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a enduring element in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is inverted when the entities no longer appear outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This represents the grimmest layer of the group. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the intensity becomes a perpetual battle between virtue and vice.


In a bleak wild, five youths find themselves caught under the malevolent aura and inhabitation of a unidentified entity. As the protagonists becomes paralyzed to escape her dominion, detached and chased by forces unnamable, they are thrust to reckon with their darkest emotions while the time without pause draws closer toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and alliances crack, prompting each participant to doubt their personhood and the concept of volition itself. The intensity climb with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that blends spiritual fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke primal fear, an power beyond time, emerging via our weaknesses, and examining a presence that forces self-examination when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something past sanity. She is insensitive until the curse activates, and that change is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing subscribers from coast to coast can be part of this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first trailer, which has gathered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to viewers around the world.


Tune in for this haunted journey into fear. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to uncover these dark realities about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, filmmaker commentary, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Facebook and TikTok and visit our film’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: the year 2025 domestic schedule melds archetypal-possession themes, microbudget gut-punches, set against franchise surges

Spanning life-or-death fear saturated with legendary theology as well as franchise returns alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned paired with calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios stabilize the year with familiar IP, in tandem platform operators load up the fall with new perspectives together with archetypal fear. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is riding the uplift of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium dread reemerges

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal opens the year with a bold swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, instead in a current-day frame. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. set for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: 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. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend 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 project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

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, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

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

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows 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.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The new fright calendar year ahead: Sequels, original films, together with A Crowded Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The fresh genre calendar packs immediately with a January traffic jam, following that extends through summer corridors, and far into the December corridor, blending legacy muscle, creative pitches, and savvy counterplay. Studios and streamers are committing to smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that convert genre releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has shown itself to be the predictable counterweight in programming grids, a space that can accelerate when it connects and still limit the drag when it underperforms. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that responsibly budgeted scare machines can drive the national conversation, the following year extended the rally with visionary-driven titles and under-the-radar smashes. The carry rolled into 2025, where revivals and festival-grade titles made clear there is demand for varied styles, from franchise continuations to original features that resonate abroad. The end result for the 2026 slate is a schedule that presents tight coordination across players, with planned clusters, a harmony of brand names and fresh ideas, and a recommitted commitment on big-screen windows that drive downstream revenue on premium rental and home platforms.

Executives say the genre now functions as a flex slot on the rollout map. Horror can roll out on most weekends, offer a grabby hook for trailers and platform-native cuts, and lead with demo groups that respond on Thursday previews and return through the second weekend if the offering works. Post a production delay era, the 2026 plan shows certainty in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a thick January window, then turns to spring and early summer for contrast, while holding room for a October build that extends to holiday-adjacent weekends and into early November. The schedule also illustrates the expanded integration of specialty arms and digital platforms that can platform and widen, ignite recommendations, and grow at the right moment.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just making another return. They are moving to present brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that ties a upcoming film to a early run. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing hands-on technique, on-set effects and concrete locations. That fusion hands the 2026 slate a robust balance of trust and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two headline moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, signaling it as both a relay and a return-to-roots character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the directional approach conveys a heritage-honoring bent without replaying the last two entries’ sibling arc. Count on a promo wave driven by brand visuals, initial cast looks, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick pivots to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, grief-rooted, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an intelligent companion that evolves into a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to mirror viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that mixes devotion and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a public title to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His projects are presented as auteur events, with a teaser that holds back and a later creative that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame offers Universal room 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a gnarly, hands-on effects strategy can feel cinematic on a controlled budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror shot that pushes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a trusty supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on click to read more September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is billing as a click to read more reset 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 mission to serve both loyalists and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build artifacts around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can lift premium screens and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by meticulous craft and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. The company has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is robust.

Digital platform strategies

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases feed copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that maximizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video balances licensed films with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using curated hubs, horror hubs, and curated strips to prolong the run on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays nimble about original films and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries near launch and coalescing around launches with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays 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 turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to buy select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is tight: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to go wider. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using boutique theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By number, 2026 tilts in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The concern, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is leading with character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the package is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps contextualize the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that observed windows did not deter a day-date move from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to leave creative active without pause points.

Production craft signals

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued move toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores texture and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which are ideal for fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is crowded. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a bridge slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns 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 heartbroken man’s machine mate becomes something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting scenario that filters its scares through a youth’s unsteady subjective lens. Rating: not yet rated. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-built and name-above-title occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: pending. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new family lashed to returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 antique diction and primal menace. Rating: TBA. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strict 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 drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will line up across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

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

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, 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 tactility, aural design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.