Antediluvian Terror Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across major streaming services

This hair-raising spectral fright fest from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an forgotten fear when unknowns become vehicles in a fiendish ordeal. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful saga of living through and primeval wickedness that will reshape genre cinema this cool-weather season. Crafted by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and emotionally thick screenplay follows five individuals who come to stranded in a unreachable wooden structure under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a two-thousand-year-old biblical demon. Ready yourself to be captivated by a big screen event that fuses primitive horror with spiritual backstory, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic tradition in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the dark entities no longer appear outside the characters, but rather within themselves. This marks the most terrifying facet of the players. The result is a psychologically brutal mind game where the tension becomes a unyielding battle between right and wrong.


In a haunting landscape, five young people find themselves trapped under the dark grip and haunting of a mysterious apparition. As the group becomes incapacitated to combat her grasp, exiled and stalked by entities indescribable, they are confronted to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the time harrowingly strikes toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion amplifies and connections crack, pushing each member to rethink their self and the idea of decision-making itself. The consequences magnify with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that marries mystical fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to explore elemental fright, an presence older than civilization itself, manipulating our weaknesses, and highlighting a entity that erodes the self when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was centered on something outside normal anguish. She is ignorant until the demon emerges, and that transition is shocking because it is so personal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering subscribers across the world can face this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has gathered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Make sure to see this life-altering fall into madness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these terrifying truths about free will.


For featurettes, production insights, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season American release plan weaves primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, and brand-name tremors

Beginning with survival horror steeped in mythic scripture and including brand-name continuations paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the richest along with carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners stabilize the year with established lines, at the same time OTT services load up the fall with debut heat alongside mythic dread. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is propelled by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s slate fires the first shot with a statement play: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Directed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a smart play. No swollen lore. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror ascends again
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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. 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.

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



The 2026 terror slate: Sequels, non-franchise titles, together with A brimming Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The incoming terror cycle clusters early with a January crush, following that unfolds through the warm months, and pushing into the holidays, balancing series momentum, fresh ideas, and strategic counterweight. Distributors with platforms are leaning into cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and platform-native promos that elevate genre releases into all-audience topics.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the bankable tool in release plans, a pillar that can lift when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded top brass that mid-range horror vehicles can drive the zeitgeist, 2024 kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and premium-leaning entries proved there is capacity for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to director-led originals that play globally. The sum for 2026 is a grid that presents tight coordination across the field, with clear date clusters, a balance of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a revived focus on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on PVOD and home streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the programming map. The genre can arrive on most weekends, provide a easy sell for teasers and TikTok spots, and outpace with moviegoers that lean in on early shows and stay strong through the week two if the entry works. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan reflects comfort in that logic. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January band, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while carving room for a October build that stretches into spooky season and into November. The schedule also shows the tightening integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and roll out at the precise moment.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across shared IP webs and long-running brands. The players are not just releasing another follow-up. They are seeking to position lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that connects a new entry to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are championing physical effects work, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence gives 2026 a strong blend of known notes and invention, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character piece. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a fan-service aware campaign without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave driven by recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick adjustments to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, heartbroken, and big-hook: a grieving man activates an machine companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-form creative that threads longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are sold as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, on-set effects led execution can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror surge that leans hard into foreign check my blog markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is framing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can fuel format premiums and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that expands both FOMO and trial spikes in the after-window. Prime Video will mix library titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using featured rows, fright rows, and featured rows to maximize the tail on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival pickups, dating horror entries closer to launch and eventizing rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. 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 cult classic, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception supports. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using precision theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not preclude a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued turn toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a weblink medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-referential reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which favor convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is busy. 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 somber counterpoint amid headline IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May prime the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s AI 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 stumble upon a unstable 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting tale that pipes the unease through a youth’s uncertain point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

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 satirical comeback that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a young family entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: closely held. Rating: pending. 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 period-precise speech and elemental fear. Rating: pending. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 stealth overachiever 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, audio design, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.