Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One eerie unearthly nightmare movie from scriptwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old curse when newcomers become vehicles in a hellish ritual. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing depiction of living through and age-old darkness that will revolutionize the fear genre this Halloween season. Brought to life by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy feature follows five figures who are stirred isolated in a secluded shack under the hostile grip of Kyra, a troubled woman claimed by a two-thousand-year-old sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be gripped by a screen-based event that unites bone-deep fear with mythic lore, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic trope in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is redefined when the forces no longer come externally, but rather within themselves. This symbolizes the haunting part of the victims. The result is a gripping identity crisis where the emotions becomes a unforgiving face-off between moral forces.


In a desolate terrain, five young people find themselves stuck under the fiendish aura and infestation of a enigmatic woman. As the survivors becomes defenseless to break her manipulation, left alone and stalked by entities unnamable, they are compelled to confront their emotional phantoms while the countdown coldly moves toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust swells and teams erode, pushing each soul to evaluate their values and the notion of conscious will itself. The consequences mount with every tick, delivering a terror ride that fuses mystical fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to awaken primitive panic, an power born of forgotten ages, manipulating human fragility, and challenging a darkness that tests the soul when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was centered on something past sanity. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that transition is haunting because it is so visceral.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing fans across the world can engage with this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has been viewed over a viral response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to a worldwide audience.


Witness this life-altering ride through nightmares. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to explore these spiritual awakenings about mankind.


For previews, director cuts, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit the movie portal.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season U.S. calendar braids together old-world possession, independent shockers, plus franchise surges

Kicking off with survival horror rooted in biblical myth all the way to canon extensions as well as surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most stratified as well as carefully orchestrated year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. major banners lock in tentpoles through proven series, at the same time SVOD players load up the fall with debut heat plus legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, independent banners is carried on the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a risk-forward move: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate delivers the closing chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a room scale body horror descent with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in 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.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Forward View: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 Horror Year Ahead: returning titles, original films, plus A jammed Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek: The upcoming genre cycle crams from day one with a January wave, before it runs through summer, and straight through the holiday stretch, mixing legacy muscle, creative pitches, and smart offsets. Studios with streamers are leaning into lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that frame genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has solidified as the dependable option in annual schedules, a corner that can lift when it clicks and still cushion the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 reminded buyers that efficiently budgeted chillers can shape the national conversation, the following year kept energy high with visionary-driven titles and sleeper breakouts. The run translated to 2025, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers proved there is a lane for different modes, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that travel well. The sum for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across studios, with intentional bunching, a balance of known properties and new packages, and a renewed emphasis on box-office windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and subscription services.

Marketers add the category now behaves like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. The genre can arrive on many corridors, create a easy sell for marketing and platform-native cuts, and outpace with patrons that turn out on early shows and hold through the second weekend if the offering hits. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern exhibits belief in that dynamic. The calendar opens with a busy January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while carving room for a autumn stretch that reaches into late October and past Halloween. The schedule also highlights the continuing integration of arthouse labels and home platforms that can platform and widen, create conversation, and roll out at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is series management across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. The studios are not just greenlighting another installment. They are working to present story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that suggests a new tone or a casting choice that reconnects a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the in tandem, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing real-world builds, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That convergence hands 2026 a solid mix of comfort and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount fires first with two high-profile entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, framing it as both a handoff and a DNA-forward character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a nostalgia-forward approach without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters thread. Look for a marketing run anchored in franchise iconography, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is big-screen 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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever defines the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete pushes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is straightforward, soulful, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an machine companion that grows into a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit uncanny live moments and snackable content that interweaves attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an fan moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are positioned as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, in-camera leaning method can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Expect a hard-R summer horror surge that spotlights international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio mounts two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is positioning as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around narrative world, and monster design, elements that can stoke PLF interest and cosplayer momentum.

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 follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in textural authenticity and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a sequence that fortifies both premiere heat and trial spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs licensed titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival pickups, securing horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of tailored theatrical exposure and quick 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 working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to move out. That positioning has shown results for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using targeted theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, the 2026 slate tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The question, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not obstruct a dual release from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind 2026 horror hint at a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that elevates texture and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta inflection that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which align with convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that elevate disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is full. 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 quiet contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a peekaboo tease plan and limited teasers that put concept first.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate shifts into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the power balance of power tilts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fright, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, this website 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting story that frames the panic through a young child’s uneven subjective lens. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-supported and headline-actor led 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 current genre trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. 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 detonates, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family entangled with old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed schedules. 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lean-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 dark-horse hit 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for weblink convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

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

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, and visuals 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, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. click to read more Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.