Antediluvian Terror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across leading streamers

A chilling metaphysical fright fest from creator / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten evil when guests become vehicles in a devilish trial. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping tale of resistance and age-old darkness that will reimagine scare flicks this spooky time. Produced by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and gothic motion picture follows five strangers who suddenly rise locked in a far-off shack under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a tormented girl controlled by a ancient holy text monster. Steel yourself to be captivated by a narrative venture that merges instinctive fear with timeless legends, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a recurring motif in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reversed when the forces no longer manifest outside their bodies, but rather from within. This represents the most primal version of the cast. The result is a emotionally raw emotional conflict where the conflict becomes a constant push-pull between light and darkness.


In a abandoned backcountry, five campers find themselves isolated under the malevolent rule and spiritual invasion of a unidentified spirit. As the cast becomes submissive to oppose her control, severed and hunted by spirits unnamable, they are pushed to reckon with their inner horrors while the final hour unforgivingly winds toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion swells and alliances collapse, urging each character to question their being and the foundation of conscious will itself. The pressure mount with every passing moment, delivering a terror ride that combines paranormal dread with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to draw upon ancestral fear, an malevolence beyond time, filtering through emotional vulnerability, and testing a evil that challenges autonomy when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra involved tapping into something far beyond human desperation. She is uninformed until the curse activates, and that flip is bone-chilling because it is so personal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering households internationally can get immersed in this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has gathered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to a global viewership.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic journey into fear. Experience *Young & Cursed* this launch day to experience these ghostly lessons about the human condition.


For exclusive trailers, on-set glimpses, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit the official website.





Contemporary horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 stateside slate integrates myth-forward possession, festival-born jolts, and returning-series thunder

Beginning with life-or-death fear saturated with legendary theology and onward to returning series and focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified plus precision-timed year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios lay down anchors with known properties, in parallel streaming platforms prime the fall with fresh voices paired with archetypal fear. At the same time, independent banners is fueled by the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are precise, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, bridging teens and legacy players. It hits in December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No swollen lore. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. 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. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

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

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror comes roaring back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 will tussle for space. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new scare release year: installments, fresh concepts, plus A stacked Calendar tailored for goosebumps

Dek The incoming horror season packs early with a January glut, after that rolls through the mid-year, and running into the December corridor, marrying marquee clout, new voices, and shrewd counterweight. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on smart costs, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that frame horror entries into water-cooler talk.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the sturdy move in programming grids, a space that can spike when it catches and still hedge the risk when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reassured greenlighters that responsibly budgeted scare machines can drive the discourse, the following year held pace with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The tailwind extended into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and awards-minded projects underscored there is demand for many shades, from sequel tracks to director-led originals that play globally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the field, with obvious clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a renewed focus on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the space now behaves like a wildcard on the programming map. Horror can premiere on numerous frames, create a sharp concept for marketing and reels, and outperform with demo groups that lean in on advance nights and hold through the subsequent weekend if the release delivers. Coming out of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration reflects conviction in that equation. The slate starts with a crowded January corridor, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while clearing room for a October build that stretches into the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The calendar also highlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can build gradually, spark evangelism, and move wide at the right moment.

A reinforcing pattern is brand management across ongoing universes and long-running brands. The studios are not just pushing another return. They are seeking to position story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a title presentation that signals a re-angled tone or a lead change that bridges a new installment to a early run. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are returning to practical craft, on-set effects and concrete locations. That blend delivers 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and discovery, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward character piece. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a fan-service aware mode without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave centered on legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever owns horror talk that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, have a peek here melancholic, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an AI companion that grows into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew odd public stunts and micro spots that fuses romance and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a branding reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are set up as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives Universal room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has proven that a visceral, makeup-driven treatment can feel big on a efficient spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror hit that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a bankable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is framing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build marketing units around lore, and practical creature work, elements that can increase large-format demand and community activity.

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 characterized by careful craft and period speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a structure that elevates both launch urgency and subscription bumps in the tail. Prime Video pairs licensed titles with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using featured rows, October hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries near their drops and staging as events debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important 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+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring 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 angle is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, reimagined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their membership.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 leans toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated 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-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the package is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept clean windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to thread films through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without hiatuses.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind these films hint at a continued lean toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that spotlights unease and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in trade spotlights and department features before rolling out a preview that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta inflection that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that work in PLF.

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 atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces 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 sorrowing man’s synthetic partner becomes something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 lonely island as the power balance of power inverts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting premise that twists the fear of a child’s shaky interpretations. Rating: forthcoming. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 surges, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family lashed to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-core horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 elemental dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. 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 beaten straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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 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 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 steady Thursday pops, smart allocations, 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 grain, sonics, and camera work 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 Promising 2026

Calendars slide. 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.