Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primeval horror, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A chilling unearthly terror film from cinematographer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten dread when drifters become instruments in a hellish ceremony. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching depiction of overcoming and old world terror that will revolutionize horror this season. Realized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and atmospheric film follows five characters who find themselves caught in a wilderness-bound shelter under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a young woman dominated by a legendary Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a narrative outing that melds gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a legendary fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the malevolences no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather from their psyche. This embodies the most sinister corner of the group. The result is a harrowing identity crisis where the events becomes a intense clash between moral forces.


In a unforgiving woodland, five adults find themselves marooned under the possessive dominion and domination of a unidentified entity. As the characters becomes unable to resist her manipulation, abandoned and followed by entities mind-shattering, they are required to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the countdown ruthlessly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension surges and connections dissolve, urging each person to evaluate their personhood and the foundation of self-determination itself. The stakes climb with every short lapse, delivering a terror ride that integrates mystical fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dive into ancestral fear, an threat from ancient eras, influencing soul-level flaws, and navigating a being that tests the soul when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something rooted in terror. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that change is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be available for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring subscribers around the globe can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first preview, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Witness this life-altering journey into fear. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these terrifying truths about the psyche.


For cast commentary, on-set glimpses, and promotions from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate Mixes biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, in parallel with IP aftershocks

Kicking off with last-stand terror drawn from old testament echoes as well as IP renewals as well as incisive indie visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most dimensioned and carefully orchestrated year of the last decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. major banners lay down anchors with established lines, at the same time platform operators saturate the fall with new perspectives alongside archetypal fear. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is catching the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

Universal fires the first shot with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, the WB camp launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The bar is raised this go, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The return delves further into myth, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed 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 night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. 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 entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

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

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming terror slate: next chapters, Originals, alongside A stacked Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The arriving horror calendar packs in short order with a January glut, subsequently unfolds through summer corridors, and straight through the holiday stretch, balancing franchise firepower, creative pitches, and savvy counterplay. Major distributors and platforms are betting on tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that frame these films into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has turned into the predictable tool in annual schedules, a lane that can expand when it lands and still safeguard the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 proved to buyers that cost-conscious genre plays can command the zeitgeist, 2024 kept energy high with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam pushed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles underscored there is a lane for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that play globally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a calendar that looks unusually coordinated across the major shops, with mapped-out bands, a spread of marquee IP and new concepts, and a reinvigorated eye on release windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now behaves like a wildcard on the release plan. Horror can bow on most weekends, supply a sharp concept for ad units and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with audiences that respond on Thursday nights and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the title hits. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan reflects certainty in that approach. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January window, then primes spring and early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a October build that runs into Halloween and into early November. The gridline also underscores the deeper integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and grow at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. The players are not just turning out another continuation. They are setting up brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a new tone or a talent selection that connects a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are prioritizing on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That combination hands 2026 a vital pairing of familiarity and newness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-centered film. Production is active in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a roots-evoking framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with iconic art, early character teases, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is crisp, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an AI companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on creepy live activations and bite-size content that interlaces love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are positioned as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second beat that signal tone without plot the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor allows Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a gnarly, practical-first approach can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that emphasizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is marketing as a new take 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 novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign creative around canon, and creature effects, elements that can fuel premium screens and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on textural authenticity and linguistic texture, Check This Out this time engaging werewolf myth. The imprint has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a sequence that enhances both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video balances licensed films with global pickups and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using featured rows, fright rows, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival deals, confirming horror entries tight to release and making event-like premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception prompts. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The go-to fix is to present each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps contextualize the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror indicate a continued shift toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that spotlights texture and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which play well in booth activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month closes 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 credible, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, news the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion mutates into something seductively lethal. 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 difficult boss push to survive on a desolate island as the control dynamic tilts and paranoia creeps in. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting story that threads the dread through a minor’s volatile subjective view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. 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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household caught in lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026, why now

Three grounded forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed schedules. 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 debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lean-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with 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 tactility, sonics, and imagery 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.