Age-old Terror rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

One blood-curdling otherworldly fear-driven tale from narrative craftsman / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an prehistoric force when drifters become vehicles in a devilish struggle. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching chronicle of continuance and old world terror that will revamp genre cinema this harvest season. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and atmospheric thriller follows five characters who are stirred ensnared in a far-off dwelling under the hostile influence of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a 2,000-year-old holy text monster. Anticipate to be absorbed by a big screen venture that weaves together bone-deep fear with legendary tales, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a enduring pillar in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is redefined when the spirits no longer develop beyond the self, but rather internally. This represents the darkest side of the victims. The result is a gripping emotional conflict where the narrative becomes a brutal contest between heaven and hell.


In a barren outland, five campers find themselves sealed under the malicious rule and infestation of a secretive person. As the team becomes unable to deny her influence, abandoned and hunted by evils indescribable, they are required to deal with their core terrors while the timeline without pity winds toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease amplifies and teams fracture, compelling each person to examine their true nature and the notion of personal agency itself. The cost climb with every tick, delivering a fear-soaked story that integrates occult fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to awaken core terror, an curse from ancient eras, working through emotional vulnerability, and wrestling with a being that erodes the self when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra asked for exploring something beneath mortal despair. She is ignorant until the curse activates, and that metamorphosis is harrowing because it is so visceral.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing fans in all regions can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its intro video, which has gathered over 100K plays.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, offering the tale to thrill-seekers globally.


Tune in for this gripping trip into the unknown. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to confront these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For film updates, production news, and announcements from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across platforms and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar Mixes old-world possession, signature indie scares, plus series shake-ups

Kicking off with survival horror steeped in mythic scripture through to returning series and sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with established lines, at the same time streamers crowd the fall with unboxed visions paired with old-world menace. On the festival side, independent banners is drafting behind the echoes from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are intentional, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

The top end is active. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Helmed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. 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 remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

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

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forecast: 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 will have to fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The next spook year to come: installments, non-franchise titles, And A stacked Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek The fresh genre season crams immediately with a January wave, then unfolds through the summer months, and deep into the year-end corridor, mixing franchise firepower, new voices, and tactical counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are prioritizing responsible budgets, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that elevate horror entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has emerged as the predictable swing in annual schedules, a space that can spike when it lands and still cushion the losses when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year signaled to greenlighters that disciplined-budget scare machines can dominate the zeitgeist, the following year extended the rally with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The tailwind fed into 2025, where resurrections and awards-minded projects signaled there is demand for different modes, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that travel well. The combined impact for 2026 is a grid that seems notably aligned across studios, with intentional bunching, a blend of household franchises and original hooks, and a sharpened attention on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium on-demand and platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now performs as a utility player on the grid. Horror can launch on most weekends, furnish a easy sell for ad units and UGC-friendly snippets, and over-index with audiences that show up on Thursday nights and hold through the second frame if the feature fires. Post a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 rhythm indicates assurance in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a heavy January band, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a October build that runs into the fright window and into post-Halloween. The layout also includes the expanded integration of arthouse labels and home platforms that can platform and widen, stoke social talk, and widen at the strategic time.

An added macro current is brand management across linked properties and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just releasing another sequel. They are working to present lineage with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that indicates a refreshed voice or a lead change that bridges a new installment to a original cycle. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are celebrating real-world builds, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That combination affords 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a return-to-roots character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a legacy-leaning approach without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout centered on brand visuals, intro reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an digital partner that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to iterate on uncanny-valley stunts and bite-size content that mixes devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a proper title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are sold as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has proven that a gritty, physical-effects centered execution can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Expect a hard-R summer horror shot that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both devotees and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around lore, and creature builds, elements that can accelerate large-format demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in careful craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is glowing.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a structure that elevates both first-week urgency and subscriber lifts in the later phase. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with global pickups and small theatrical windows when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, fright rows, and curated strips to prolong the run on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival grabs, slotting horror entries closer to launch and making event-like debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of tailored theatrical exposure and fast windowing that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has 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 cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using boutique theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

Known brands versus new stories

By share, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a rising filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the package is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Comps from the last three years outline the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not hamper a day-and-date experiment from succeeding when the brand was compelling. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in premium formats. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they angle differently and stretch the story. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, enables marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to leave creative active without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The director conversations behind 2026 horror telegraph a continued lean toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights aura and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft spotlights before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster work and world-building, which work nicely for con floor moments and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that sing on PLF.

Annual flow

January is crowded. 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 heftier brand moves. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is check over here meaningful, but the palette of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Early-year through spring seed summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a bridge slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited advance reveals that favor idea over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s virtual companion grows into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 be swallowed by a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 demanding boss work to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic upends and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 family-home haunting scenario that explores the dread of a child’s shaky impressions. Rating: rating pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural 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 satirical comeback that skewers current genre trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 spreads, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a young family caught in ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered More about the author 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 period-precise speech and elemental dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 and why now

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

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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 harvest those lanes. 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. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundscape, and visuals 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 Promising 2026

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.