Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across leading streamers

This chilling paranormal suspense film from creator / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an mythic evil when unknowns become puppets in a supernatural trial. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish journey of overcoming and archaic horror that will revamp the horror genre this Halloween season. Created by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and tone-heavy motion picture follows five figures who suddenly rise caught in a wilderness-bound cottage under the sinister control of Kyra, a troubled woman controlled by a 2,000-year-old holy text monster. Anticipate to be ensnared by a visual display that fuses intense horror with arcane tradition, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a recurring narrative in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the dark entities no longer arise from a different plane, but rather from their psyche. This portrays the most hidden shade of each of them. The result is a intense cognitive warzone where the drama becomes a constant struggle between innocence and sin.


In a isolated landscape, five teens find themselves sealed under the ghastly rule and haunting of a shadowy character. As the youths becomes submissive to evade her rule, marooned and preyed upon by creatures mind-shattering, they are obligated to deal with their greatest panics while the seconds brutally ticks onward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and friendships break, forcing each soul to reflect on their self and the principle of independent thought itself. The cost grow with every short lapse, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes supernatural terror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to uncover elemental fright, an power beyond recorded history, channeling itself through soul-level flaws, and examining a presence that redefines identity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra involved tapping into something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the control shifts, and that transition is eerie because it is so emotional.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure subscribers worldwide can survive this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to global fright lovers.


Witness this heart-stopping ride through nightmares. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to explore these chilling revelations about existence.


For director insights, set experiences, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official website.





American horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 U.S. calendar integrates archetypal-possession themes, microbudget gut-punches, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from last-stand terror saturated with old testament echoes as well as franchise returns set beside surgical indie voices, 2025 is tracking to be the most dimensioned paired with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors hold down the year with franchise anchors, in parallel streamers pack the fall with new voices alongside mythic dread. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is fueled by the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are precise, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It hits in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. 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. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, 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 initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, plus A loaded Calendar designed for chills

Dek The fresh genre calendar lines up right away with a January glut, after that runs through the mid-year, and well into the festive period, weaving series momentum, fresh ideas, and strategic counterplay. Distributors with platforms are leaning into cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that turn horror entries into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has shown itself to be the predictable swing in distribution calendars, a pillar that can surge when it clicks and still buffer the risk when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year showed executives that modestly budgeted entries can galvanize the discourse, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The carry fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and prestige plays demonstrated there is demand for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to original features that scale internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the market, with obvious clusters, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a reinvigorated priority on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and home streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the programming map. The genre can kick off on most weekends, provide a clean hook for marketing and social clips, and outstrip with crowds that respond on opening previews and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the feature lands. Post a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping indicates comfort in that dynamic. The year begins with a front-loaded January band, then exploits spring through early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall corridor that carries into spooky season and into the next week. The program also spotlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and roll out at the precise moment.

An added macro current is brand strategy across shared universes and heritage properties. The studios are not just making another sequel. They are trying to present continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a talent selection that bridges a next film to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into practical craft, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That mix produces 2026 a solid mix of comfort and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

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

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile bets that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the story approach hints at a fan-service aware mode without looping the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will hunt large awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever defines the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an algorithmic mate that mutates into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and brief clips that threads devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The spooky-season slot creates space for Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, in-camera leaning mix can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror hit that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both players and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build promo materials around setting detail, and practical creature work, elements that can lift format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror defined by careful craft and textual fidelity, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Digital platform strategies

Platform plans for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s releases shift click site to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a structure that elevates both debut momentum and sign-up spikes in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together outside acquisitions with global originals and brief theater runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival wins, timing horror entries closer to launch and elevating as drops premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has been willing to pick up select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday frame to widen. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is fatigue. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the deal build is grounded enough to build pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a parallel release from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in premium screens. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they change perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to link the films through character arcs and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

How the films are being made

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate signal a continued emphasis on tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta-horror reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which play well in convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 larger brand plays. The month concludes 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 thick, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s artificial companion escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys 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: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the power balance upends and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s tactile craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that interrogates the fright of a child’s unreliable perceptions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-supported and celebrity-led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 surges, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survivalist horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. 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 elemental fear. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming landings. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 breakout hunt 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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, 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 texture, sound, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.