Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An unnerving supernatural horror tale from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an prehistoric malevolence when drifters become instruments in a dark ordeal. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense saga of struggle and forgotten curse that will reconstruct horror this Halloween season. Guided by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and eerie story follows five people who snap to ensnared in a wooded house under the unfriendly manipulation of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a 2,000-year-old biblical force. Ready yourself to be hooked by a narrative spectacle that intertwines primitive horror with timeless legends, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a time-honored concept in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the spirits no longer emerge outside their bodies, but rather from deep inside. This marks the most terrifying side of every character. The result is a relentless emotional conflict where the intensity becomes a perpetual contest between innocence and sin.


In a bleak outland, five youths find themselves contained under the ghastly effect and curse of a elusive entity. As the companions becomes vulnerable to combat her grasp, exiled and hunted by creatures beyond reason, they are driven to reckon with their darkest emotions while the time harrowingly winds toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension swells and bonds break, compelling each character to challenge their self and the structure of freedom of choice itself. The cost rise with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that weaves together ghostly evil with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke elemental fright, an entity born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through our weaknesses, and dealing with a force that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant channeling something darker than pain. She is uninformed until the control shifts, and that pivot is haunting because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving subscribers around the globe can enjoy this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Experience this soul-jarring descent into hell. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to see these spiritual awakenings about mankind.


For featurettes, director cuts, and announcements via the production team, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across fan hubs and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s Turning Point: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate interlaces biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, together with series shake-ups

Across last-stand terror drawn from biblical myth all the way to series comebacks as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the most dimensioned combined with strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios are anchoring the year with established lines, in parallel platform operators load up the fall with new voices in concert with legend-coded dread. In parallel, horror’s indie wing is drafting behind the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are precise, so 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn starring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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 lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror comes roaring back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

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

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The next Horror Year Ahead: Sequels, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A jammed Calendar designed for chills

Dek The fresh genre year lines up early with a January cluster, subsequently extends through the warm months, and well into the year-end corridor, braiding name recognition, new voices, and data-minded release strategy. Studios and platforms are prioritizing lean spends, theatrical leads, and shareable marketing that turn these films into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror has emerged as the consistent play in studio slates, a lane that can break out when it connects and still protect the drag when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year showed top brass that low-to-mid budget chillers can command the discourse, the following year held pace with director-led heat and surprise hits. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and premium-leaning entries showed there is an opening for several lanes, from sequel tracks to original one-offs that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a run that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with planned clusters, a mix of known properties and novel angles, and a re-energized strategy on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and subscription services.

Marketers add the horror lane now acts as a flex slot on the grid. The genre can premiere on many corridors, furnish a tight logline for creative and shorts, and outpace with patrons that line up on advance nights and return through the second frame if the feature satisfies. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 cadence signals certainty in that engine. The slate launches with a stacked January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for alternate plays, while keeping space for a October build that stretches into All Hallows period and afterwards. The gridline also underscores the deeper integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and scale up at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is IP stewardship across linked properties and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just mounting another chapter. They are shaping as continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a typeface approach that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a star attachment that threads a incoming chapter to a initial period. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are leaning into real-world builds, real effects and vivid settings. That alloy delivers the 2026 slate a confident blend of home base and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two centerpiece titles that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the front, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a foundation-forward character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the artistic posture announces a roots-evoking approach without repeating the last two entries’ sisters thread. A campaign is expected built on heritage visuals, character-first teases, and a staggered trailer plan slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will seek mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format making room for quick reframes to whatever leads the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three specific projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is efficient, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man implements an AI companion that unfolds into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to reprise off-kilter promo beats and short reels that interlaces romance and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial promo. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s work are presented as signature events, with a mystery-first teaser and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween runway creates space for Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, practical-first execution can feel prestige on a controlled budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror charge that embraces worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio books two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is marketing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve my company both fans and general audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around mythos, and monster design, elements that can amplify premium booking interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror centered on textural authenticity and period language, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is supportive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform plans for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal titles feed copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a stair-step that boosts both first-week urgency and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves library titles with global acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on the 2026 genre total. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival deals, timing horror entries tight to release and staging as events launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 corridor with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is simple: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. 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 announced a cinema-first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has paid off for director-led genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception encourages. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on franchise value. The question, as ever, is fatigue. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set frame the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not prevent a parallel release from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds 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 produced back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind the year’s horror hint at a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that highlights atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that elevates tone over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in con floor moments and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heftier brand moves. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion turns into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 unyielding boss battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance flips and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to dread, anchored by Cronin’s practical effects and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that plays with the panic of a child’s mercurial POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set 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 flares, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new clan caught in past horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, great post to read July goes red-band, 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 keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value 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 grain, sound, 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.

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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.