Age-old Horror Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling chiller, arriving October 2025 across global platforms

This bone-chilling supernatural terror film from narrative craftsman / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric entity when foreigners become vehicles in a satanic ritual. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a intense tale of overcoming and ancient evil that will transform scare flicks this season. Realized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and atmospheric story follows five individuals who come to sealed in a wilderness-bound hideaway under the sinister will of Kyra, a female presence possessed by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Be prepared to be enthralled by a immersive event that merges bodily fright with mystical narratives, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a well-established foundation in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is turned on its head when the entities no longer come from a different plane, but rather deep within. This embodies the darkest dimension of each of them. The result is a relentless cognitive warzone where the conflict becomes a unyielding push-pull between heaven and hell.


In a abandoned no-man's-land, five figures find themselves caught under the possessive rule and inhabitation of a shadowy woman. As the ensemble becomes powerless to reject her rule, abandoned and targeted by entities indescribable, they are pushed to stand before their greatest panics while the hours unforgivingly moves toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion mounts and associations crack, urging each survivor to question their existence and the integrity of conscious will itself. The cost grow with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that combines paranormal dread with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to tap into basic terror, an threat older than civilization itself, working through our fears, and wrestling with a evil that forces self-examination when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra required summoning something far beyond human desperation. She is in denial until the haunting manifests, and that metamorphosis is gut-wrenching because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring audiences everywhere can experience this spirit-driven thriller.


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


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, spreading the horror to a worldwide audience.


Be sure to catch this visceral exploration of dread. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these unholy truths about the mind.


For featurettes, extra content, and press updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your socials and visit the official digital haunt.





Modern horror’s major pivot: 2025 in focus stateside slate interlaces biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, stacked beside tentpole growls

Ranging from life-or-death fear rooted in old testament echoes and including franchise returns and incisive indie visions, 2025 stands to become the most stratified as well as intentionally scheduled year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Top studios hold down the year with franchise anchors, even as premium streamers saturate the fall with debut heat in concert with scriptural shivers. On the festival side, indie storytellers is riding the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are precise, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige fear returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

By late summer, the WB camp unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson resumes command, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror duet fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Shaped and helmed 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 an astute call. No overstuffed canon. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

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

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Key Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror reemerges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new genre cycle: continuations, original films, plus A stacked Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The emerging scare cycle loads at the outset with a January wave, thereafter carries through summer corridors, and pushing into the holiday stretch, braiding legacy muscle, creative pitches, and smart counterweight. Distributors with platforms are embracing responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that position these releases into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has turned into the consistent option in annual schedules, a space that can accelerate when it clicks and still safeguard the losses when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for top brass that lean-budget shockers can lead the zeitgeist, the following year carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and quiet over-performers. The head of steam flowed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects signaled there is space for many shades, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a grid that presents tight coordination across players, with purposeful groupings, a balance of household franchises and fresh ideas, and a renewed priority on exhibition windows that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and subscription services.

Planners observe the category now performs as a schedule utility on the calendar. The genre can debut on many corridors, provide a clear pitch for previews and reels, and outpace with patrons that lean in on previews Thursday and stick through the next pass if the offering hits. After a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 cadence shows comfort in that logic. The year gets underway with a weighty January window, then primes spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a late-year stretch that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and beyond. The gridline also reflects the greater integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and scale up at the inflection point.

A second macro trend is series management across shared universes and classic IP. The studios are not just mounting another chapter. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a premium feel, whether that is a typeface approach that flags a tonal shift or a casting choice that bridges a upcoming film to a classic era. At the in tandem, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are embracing tactile craft, special makeup and concrete locations. That fusion yields the 2026 slate a robust balance of known notes and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount establishes early momentum with two high-profile bets that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative stance announces a memory-charged treatment without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave leaning on recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a summer alternative, this one will chase wide buzz through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever tops genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, soulful, and concept-forward: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that evolves into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to echo strange in-person beats and short-cut promos that fuses devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an teaser payoff closer to the opening teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s releases are set up as creative events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel top-tier on a middle budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror surge that spotlights international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, holding this website a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is describing as a ground-zero restart 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 sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can amplify large-format demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in obsessive craft and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is warm.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform windowing in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre slate flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that maximizes both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video pairs licensed films with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, fright rows, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival wins, dating horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of focused cinema runs and short jumps to platform that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple great post to read TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has paid off for director-led genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception allows. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using small theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The question, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a fresh helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the cast-creatives package is known enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps clarify the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not preclude a hybrid test from working when the brand was big. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reframe POV and grow 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 two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to tie installments through protagonists and motifs and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind these films signal a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights creep and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which match well with expo activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel key. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

January is loaded. 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 heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s 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 comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can win the holiday when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s AI companion grows into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

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 run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 hard-edged boss work to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that interrogates the fear of a child’s fragile impressions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-supported and toplined ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family caught in past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primordial menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 2026 and why now

Three hands-on forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, disciplined footprints, 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 surface detail, soundcraft, and imagery 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.