Mythic Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, launching October 2025 on top streamers

A bone-chilling occult shockfest from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten dread when drifters become proxies in a demonic struggle. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of continuance and archaic horror that will alter horror this Halloween season. Created by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and cinematic story follows five people who find themselves imprisoned in a remote hideaway under the aggressive power of Kyra, a troubled woman haunted by a timeless ancient fiend. Be prepared to be immersed by a audio-visual adventure that melds visceral dread with arcane tradition, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring foundation in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is subverted when the monsters no longer develop externally, but rather from deep inside. This illustrates the most sinister shade of the victims. The result is a psychologically brutal internal warfare where the intensity becomes a intense confrontation between virtue and vice.


In a desolate natural abyss, five youths find themselves marooned under the malicious influence and spiritual invasion of a elusive character. As the victims becomes incapable to evade her control, left alone and stalked by forces unimaginable, they are obligated to deal with their soulful dreads while the hours without pity draws closer toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread builds and friendships shatter, prompting each individual to challenge their essence and the concept of conscious will itself. The intensity mount with every passing moment, delivering a horror experience that blends otherworldly panic with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dig into primitive panic, an force that existed before mankind, manipulating human fragility, and confronting a force that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was centered on something rooted in terror. She is innocent until the entity awakens, and that transformation is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering customers across the world can survive this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has gathered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, giving access to the movie to a worldwide audience.


Avoid skipping this heart-stopping journey into fear. Face *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to uncover these evil-rooted truths about free will.


For cast commentary, making-of footage, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves archetypal-possession themes, underground frights, together with franchise surges

From survival horror drawn from ancient scripture and including brand-name continuations alongside acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as the richest paired with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Top studios hold down the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously premium streamers prime the fall with new perspectives in concert with old-world menace. On another front, the independent cohort is surfing the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, which means 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Steered by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. set for 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 ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma as narrative engine, along with eerie supernatural rules. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Firsts: Modest spend, serious shock

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to 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 platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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



The forthcoming 2026 Horror slate: returning titles, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The current scare slate stacks early with a January crush, from there spreads through summer corridors, and carrying into the festive period, blending brand heft, novel approaches, and data-minded alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into cost discipline, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that frame these films into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent lever in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it breaks through and still protect the drag when it underperforms. After 2023 re-taught top brass that lean-budget fright engines can lead the zeitgeist, the following year held pace with director-led heat and surprise hits. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays confirmed there is room for diverse approaches, from series extensions to original features that travel well. The takeaway for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of brand names and novel angles, and a tightened emphasis on release windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and streaming.

Buyers contend the horror lane now behaves like a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can open on virtually any date, supply a grabby hook for marketing and vertical videos, and outstrip with ticket buyers that appear on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the offering satisfies. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration telegraphs conviction in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a heavy January band, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a fall corridor that reaches into spooky season and beyond. The program also reflects the increasing integration of indie arms and home platforms that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and widen at the strategic time.

A notable top-line trend is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and veteran brands. Studios are not just turning out another installment. They are looking to package lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that signals a tonal shift or a casting pivot that binds a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing physical effects work, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That alloy provides the 2026 slate a smart balance of comfort and shock, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate projects that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a handoff and a return-to-roots character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a nostalgia-forward angle without covering again the last two entries’ sisters storyline. A campaign is expected rooted in legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick adjustments to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated entries. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that grows into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to reprise creepy live activations and brief clips that interlaces love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are positioned as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that define feel without revealing the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has shown that a raw, on-set effects led approach can feel elevated on a moderate cost. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror rush that centers international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is calling a reset 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 mission to serve both loyalists and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can lift premium screens and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that boosts both initial urgency and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video pairs catalogue additions with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library engagement, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on overall cume. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival buys, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and eventizing go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 pipeline with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a standard theatrical run for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception warrants. Watch for 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 hand in hand, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is overexposure. The near-term solution is to package each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set outline the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reorient and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to bridge entries through personae and themes and to hold creative in the market without hiatuses.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which fit with expo activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is heavy. 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 hard-edged boss try to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic inverts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting story that refracts terror through a preteen’s uncertain perspective. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family entangled with past horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. 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 time-true diction Check This Out and primal menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or shifted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Calendar math also matters. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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-hit hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, acoustics, 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is name recognition where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.