Mythic Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 across major platforms

One spine-tingling mystic fright fest from author / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an timeless terror when unrelated individuals become tokens in a hellish contest. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing saga of staying alive and primeval wickedness that will reimagine the horror genre this spooky time. Helmed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and moody story follows five unacquainted souls who arise isolated in a hidden hideaway under the unfriendly grip of Kyra, a haunted figure consumed by a two-thousand-year-old sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a filmic ride that integrates gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a enduring fixture in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the demons no longer originate from an outside force, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the haunting shade of the players. The result is a relentless mind game where the drama becomes a perpetual clash between right and wrong.


In a forsaken terrain, five young people find themselves stuck under the unholy dominion and control of a shadowy figure. As the companions becomes incapacitated to withstand her control, detached and followed by forces unfathomable, they are made to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter unceasingly draws closer toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and friendships fracture, urging each figure to scrutinize their identity and the notion of autonomy itself. The cost escalate with every fleeting time, delivering a horror experience that intertwines occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into primal fear, an entity beyond time, filtering through our fears, and examining a force that peels away humanity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was centered on something deeper than fear. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that transformation is deeply unsettling because it is so raw.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure subscribers globally can watch this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has earned over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to viewers around the world.


Do not miss this life-altering path of possession. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to see these ghostly lessons about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, on-set glimpses, and news from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit our horror hub.





American horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate braids together old-world possession, festival-born jolts, together with returning-series thunder

From survival horror suffused with old testament echoes all the way to installment follow-ups in concert with acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned paired with calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio majors stabilize the year with known properties, at the same time streamers load up the fall with debut heat and primordial unease. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is surfing the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A fat September–October lane is customary now, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, the WB camp unveils the final movement from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time the stakes climb, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The follow up digs further into canon, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It lands in December, buttoning the final window.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

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, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

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

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next spook slate: installments, new stories, as well as A stacked Calendar tailored for Scares

Dek: The emerging genre calendar lines up at the outset with a January pile-up, before it carries through summer corridors, and carrying into the holiday frame, mixing name recognition, original angles, and strategic release strategy. Studios and streamers are doubling down on cost discipline, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that convert these films into four-quadrant talking points.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has turned into the bankable counterweight in studio slates, a lane that can surge when it hits and still hedge the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 signaled to decision-makers that efficiently budgeted genre plays can drive the zeitgeist, 2024 continued the surge with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The energy extended into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets confirmed there is a lane for many shades, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the industry, with intentional bunching, a combination of household franchises and original hooks, and a reinvigorated focus on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on PVOD and subscription services.

Planners observe the genre now works like a schedule utility on the grid. Horror can bow on numerous frames, furnish a clear pitch for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and overperform with ticket buyers that line up on Thursday nights and stick through the follow-up frame if the picture connects. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 plan telegraphs trust in that approach. The slate commences with a weighty January window, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while keeping space for a autumn push that extends to All Hallows period and past Halloween. The layout also illustrates the greater integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can platform and widen, stoke social talk, and expand at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand strategy across interlocking continuities and classic IP. Distribution groups are not just pushing another follow-up. They are shaping as lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting choice that ties a next entry to a classic era. At the in tandem, the creative teams behind the top original plays are returning to physical effects work, in-camera effects and distinct locales. That blend offers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of home base and shock, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee pushes that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a succession moment and a back-to-basics character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a heritage-honoring angle without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run driven by signature symbols, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format fitting quick shifts to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined strategies. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, somber, and easily pitched: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that mutates into a dangerous lover. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to revisit odd public stunts and bite-size content that interweaves attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are branded as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a second beat that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, makeup-driven method can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Look for a red-band summer horror hit that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is billing as 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 sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and curious audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can increase format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

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 Eggers’ run of period horror built on obsessive craft and historical speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform windowing in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that enhances both week-one demand and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix films and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to pick up select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a big-screen first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that observed windows did not obstruct a hybrid test from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to leave creative active without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The production chatter behind 2026 horror point to a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that leans on creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which fit with convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring seed summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season 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 arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s digital partner shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 difficult boss struggle to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy my company upends and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting premise that leverages the panic of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-supported and star-fronted eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that lampoons present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a young family entangled with residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundcraft, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.