Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases antediluvian malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across top streaming platforms

This chilling mystic thriller from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primordial nightmare when passersby become tools in a devilish experiment. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful account of perseverance and primordial malevolence that will remodel horror this October. Directed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five figures who regain consciousness trapped in a off-grid cabin under the unfriendly sway of Kyra, a cursed figure consumed by a time-worn sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be absorbed by a cinematic display that weaves together visceral dread with mythic lore, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a well-established element in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is flipped when the presences no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather through their own souls. This illustrates the most primal part of every character. The result is a harrowing spiritual tug-of-war where the plotline becomes a brutal conflict between divinity and wickedness.


In a unforgiving wild, five souls find themselves marooned under the ominous dominion and inhabitation of a mysterious person. As the characters becomes unresisting to break her dominion, cut off and tracked by presences impossible to understand, they are required to battle their core terrors while the hours brutally strikes toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and teams splinter, coercing each protagonist to reconsider their existence and the integrity of conscious will itself. The cost mount with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that marries spiritual fright with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dig into pure dread, an presence that existed before mankind, emerging via human fragility, and exposing a spirit that challenges autonomy when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something outside normal anguish. She is blind until the possession kicks in, and that turn is deeply unsettling because it is so internal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring households everywhere can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first preview, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, presenting the nightmare to viewers around the world.


Witness this unforgettable path of possession. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to explore these spiritual awakenings about our species.


For film updates, on-set glimpses, and alerts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACMovie across media channels and visit the official website.





Horror’s Turning Point: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar fuses archetypal-possession themes, independent shockers, plus IP aftershocks

From survival horror rooted in mythic scripture and including installment follow-ups as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 appears poised to be the most dimensioned paired with blueprinted year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. the big studios plant stakes across the year with known properties, concurrently streamers flood the fall with emerging auteurs plus legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, horror’s indie wing is surfing the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: High-craft horror returns

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

Universal fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Digital Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The forthcoming 2026 Horror Year Ahead: installments, original films, paired with A brimming Calendar tailored for screams

Dek The current genre slate lines up early with a January pile-up, following that runs through midyear, and pushing into the winter holidays, blending legacy muscle, original angles, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Studios and platforms are relying on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that transform these films into all-audience topics.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the dependable option in release plans, a space that can spike when it hits and still cushion the drag when it does not. After the 2023 year proved to leaders that cost-conscious shockers can lead the national conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and quiet over-performers. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is appetite for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to original features that travel well. The upshot for 2026 is a schedule that reads highly synchronized across the market, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of legacy names and untested plays, and a refocused stance on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital rental and platforms.

Planners observe the space now behaves like a schedule utility on the programming map. The genre can premiere on numerous frames, create a clean hook for marketing and shorts, and overperform with audiences that come out on preview nights and stay strong through the next weekend if the offering lands. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence underscores assurance in that engine. The slate begins with a busy January run, then targets spring into early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a autumn push that connects to the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The gridline also illustrates the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can platform and widen, create conversation, and roll out at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and storied titles. The players are not just producing another follow-up. They are aiming to frame lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title design that announces a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that anchors a fresh chapter to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into real-world builds, physical gags and vivid settings. That pairing gives 2026 a vital pairing of comfort and shock, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a succession moment and a heritage-centered character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture telegraphs a heritage-honoring campaign without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Plan for a rollout anchored in heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tight, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to mirror eerie street stunts and short-form creative that interlaces love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be 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 preserves a proper title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are branded as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, in-camera leaning mix can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror hit that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can boost PLF interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the downstream. Prime Video pairs licensed content with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about Netflix originals and festival snaps, dating horror entries near launch and eventizing releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 runway 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 clean: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, refined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas window to scale. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 leans toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is familiar enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps clarify the plan. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not block a hybrid test from thriving when the brand was trusted. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries point to a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has see here said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers atmosphere and fear rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta refresh that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which match well with con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that elevate precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can play 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 moved through premium slots.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder season window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion evolves into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: mood-led 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 struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to horror, anchored by Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 family-home haunting premise that threads the dread through a little one’s wavering perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers contemporary horror memes and true-crime obsessions. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family snared by long-buried horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter 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 debuts. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will line up across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 tempo and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, 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 stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, and picture 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.