Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

This blood-curdling paranormal horror tale from writer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an long-buried evil when strangers become proxies in a supernatural ordeal. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing chronicle of struggle and prehistoric entity that will revamp genre cinema this season. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and emotionally thick film follows five characters who are stirred stranded in a isolated shelter under the menacing rule of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a ancient sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be captivated by a immersive journey that intertwines raw fear with mythic lore, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a iconic theme in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the demons no longer form from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This mirrors the darkest dimension of all involved. The result is a enthralling spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a perpetual face-off between purity and corruption.


In a isolated terrain, five adults find themselves sealed under the fiendish grip and inhabitation of a unknown female figure. As the group becomes paralyzed to resist her influence, cut off and pursued by entities beyond comprehension, they are thrust to face their darkest emotions while the hours unforgivingly moves toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and friendships crack, forcing each participant to rethink their existence and the idea of personal agency itself. The danger escalate with every fleeting time, delivering a terror ride that marries occult fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to evoke basic terror, an evil before modern man, manipulating our fears, and examining a power that strips down our being when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra asked for exploring something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the entity awakens, and that evolution is harrowing because it is so intimate.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing users around the globe can face this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its release of trailer #1, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, spreading the horror to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this haunted exploration of dread. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these dark realities about existence.


For previews, director cuts, and news from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s pivotal crossroads: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar weaves primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, alongside franchise surges

Running from grit-forward survival fare infused with mythic scripture as well as series comebacks plus focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted together with deliberate year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. major banners lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, even as SVOD players pack the fall with debut heat alongside legend-coded dread. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is carried on the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium dread reemerges

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp opens the year with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in a modern-day environment. Steered by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson again directs, and those signature textures resurface: throwback unease, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

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

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. 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.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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 forthcoming 2026 Horror cycle: continuations, Originals, alongside A packed Calendar optimized for shocks

Dek: The brand-new horror cycle crowds up front with a January bottleneck, then rolls through the mid-year, and far into the festive period, balancing name recognition, untold stories, and shrewd counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that shape these films into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has become the predictable counterweight in programming grids, a vertical that can spike when it hits and still hedge the downside when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year proved to studio brass that lean-budget genre plays can steer cultural conversation, the following year carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The energy carried into 2025, where reawakened brands and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for many shades, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a programming that appears tightly organized across players, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a renewed focus on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and streaming.

Planners observe the category now operates like a plug-and-play option on the schedule. Horror can open on open real estate, furnish a simple premise for promo reels and shorts, and outperform with ticket buyers that turn out on first-look nights and sustain through the second weekend if the release fires. Following a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence underscores belief in that equation. The slate starts with a loaded January stretch, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a autumn push that connects to the Halloween frame and into the next week. The program also shows the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and OTT outlets that can build gradually, spark evangelism, and scale up at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across unified worlds and long-running brands. Studios are not just rolling another chapter. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that signals a new tone or a star attachment that reconnects a new installment to a vintage era. At the same time, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are leaning into physical effects work, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That alloy gives the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a baton pass and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture indicates a memory-charged approach without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on brand visuals, character-first teases, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will drive large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is straightforward, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an intelligent companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to replay strange in-person beats and micro spots that interweaves longing and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are framed as creative events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway creates space for Universal to command 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has proven that a tactile, physical-effects centered mix can feel top-tier on a efficient spend. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is billing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build assets around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a pacing that fortifies both FOMO and trial spikes in the tail. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library engagement, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on lifetime take. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival deals, scheduling horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a tiered of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count 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+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly activity when the genre conversation ramps.

Boutique label prospects

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 angle is clean: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By skew, the 2026 slate favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the configuration is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not stop a hybrid test from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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 lensed sequentially, lets marketing to cross-link entries through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease 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 set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which are ideal for convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s intelligent companion shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a little one’s wavering subjective view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-fronted eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh my company restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: underway. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on repeatable beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster 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 use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 flow and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, 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 hold talk and turnout 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 Thursday preview surges, tight deployments, 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, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.