Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

This haunting spectral suspense story from creator / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an archaic malevolence when drifters become vehicles in a supernatural game. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing portrayal of endurance and age-old darkness that will transform fear-driven cinema this fall. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and immersive thriller follows five young adults who are stirred stuck in a off-grid wooden structure under the aggressive will of Kyra, a young woman dominated by a prehistoric Old Testament spirit. Arm yourself to be drawn in by a narrative spectacle that blends visceral dread with legendary tales, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a mainstay trope in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is flipped when the presences no longer originate from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This embodies the most sinister layer of the group. The result is a intense internal warfare where the narrative becomes a perpetual struggle between moral forces.


In a desolate woodland, five teens find themselves stuck under the possessive presence and possession of a enigmatic being. As the characters becomes incapacitated to escape her command, severed and followed by spirits beyond reason, they are forced to reckon with their core terrors while the seconds without pause edges forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety swells and partnerships fracture, pushing each member to doubt their being and the idea of conscious will itself. The hazard accelerate with every minute, delivering a horror experience that combines otherworldly panic with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to uncover core terror, an curse from prehistory, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and navigating a entity that forces self-examination when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra asked for exploring something outside normal anguish. She is ignorant until the curse activates, and that conversion is terrifying because it is so visceral.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing streamers across the world can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its release of trailer #1, which has earned over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to scare fans abroad.


Mark your calendar for this gripping ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to witness these chilling revelations about human nature.


For cast commentary, set experiences, and news from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit our film’s homepage.





American horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar blends Mythic Possession, independent shockers, and franchise surges

Ranging from last-stand terror suffused with ancient scripture through to returning series set beside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted combined with strategic year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors hold down the year with franchise anchors, as OTT services front-load the fall with fresh voices in concert with mythic dread. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, so 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Slated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as 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, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study 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 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 pre war vampire folk narrative toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Penned and steered 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 night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. 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.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No legacy baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 spook slate: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, alongside A Crowded Calendar optimized for shocks

Dek: The current horror season lines up from the jump with a January wave, before it flows through midyear, and running into the holiday frame, balancing brand heft, new concepts, and strategic release strategy. Studios and streamers are committing to smart costs, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that turn these films into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent lever in studio slates, a vertical that can spike when it lands and still limit the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that lean-budget genre plays can steer pop culture, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The momentum moved into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films made clear there is a market for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across studios, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of familiar brands and novel angles, and a reinvigorated commitment on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and digital services.

Schedulers say the horror lane now performs as a utility player on the schedule. Horror can bow on numerous frames, yield a simple premise for marketing and reels, and outperform with demo groups that line up on preview nights and stay strong through the next weekend if the offering delivers. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout shows conviction in that approach. The slate launches with a thick January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that pushes into the fright window and beyond. The schedule also underscores the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A companion trend is brand curation across linked properties and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just pushing another installment. They are trying to present lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a new tone or a talent selection that links a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the filmmakers behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing material texture, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That combination yields 2026 a lively combination of home base and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture announces a legacy-leaning mode without going over the last two entries’ sisters thread. Expect a marketing push stacked with brand visuals, first images of characters, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will build broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick shifts to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo strange in-person beats and brief clips that blurs love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a public title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are marketed as director events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, practical-first strategy can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that emphasizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is marketing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by minute detail and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s horror titles land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a pacing that fortifies both FOMO and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using editorial spots, fright rows, and programmed rows to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries near launch and turning into events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a paired of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or star-driven packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. 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 atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, reimagined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to go wider. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Plan on 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 as partners, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and director-driven titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the team and cast is steady enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps make sense of the plan. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept streaming intact did not prevent a day-date move from delivering when the brand was sticky. In click to read more 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers texture and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that withholds plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which align with booth activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. 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 thick, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring load in summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s AI companion evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 ventures 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: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 difficult boss struggle to survive on a remote island as the power dynamic upends and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 setup that toys with the horror of a child’s tricky POV. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that needles hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a another family caught in long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. 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 historical diction and primordial menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming releases. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 work 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 classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, 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 detail, acoustics, and image-making 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, Ready To Roar

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, protect the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.