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

A terrifying paranormal fear-driven tale from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primeval nightmare when passersby become victims in a fiendish trial. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of struggle and primeval wickedness that will resculpt genre cinema this October. Directed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and claustrophobic thriller follows five teens who find themselves sealed in a wooded wooden structure under the menacing manipulation of Kyra, a mysterious girl haunted by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Prepare to be seized by a visual event that melds intense horror with timeless legends, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a historical element in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is twisted when the presences no longer come outside their bodies, but rather from their core. This illustrates the darkest version of every character. The result is a harrowing spiritual tug-of-war where the intensity becomes a brutal clash between purity and corruption.


In a abandoned backcountry, five young people find themselves isolated under the unholy dominion and infestation of a unidentified female figure. As the survivors becomes paralyzed to oppose her control, isolated and preyed upon by presences unnamable, they are made to stand before their core terrors while the final hour coldly edges forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and bonds disintegrate, pressuring each cast member to doubt their being and the notion of volition itself. The pressure grow with every breath, delivering a frightening tale that combines spiritual fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to dive into raw dread, an spirit that predates humanity, manifesting in human fragility, and testing a curse that strips down our being when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra needed manifesting something darker than pain. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that evolution is deeply unsettling because it is so raw.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing users around the globe can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has earned over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, bringing the film to scare fans abroad.


Witness this gripping journey into fear. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to witness these nightmarish insights about our species.


For exclusive trailers, set experiences, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule fuses old-world possession, independent shockers, paired with returning-series thunder

Moving from pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with legendary theology as well as series comebacks plus incisive indie visions, 2025 stands to become the richest and precision-timed year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, while digital services crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs paired with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, horror’s indie wing is catching the momentum from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, but this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are exacting, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium genre swings back

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

Universal opens the year with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real 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.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While cinemas swing on series strength, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, 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.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

What to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. 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 holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare slate: continuations, filmmaker-first projects, together with A busy Calendar designed for frights

Dek The upcoming horror cycle packs in short order with a January traffic jam, following that extends through peak season, and deep into the holiday frame, mixing name recognition, original angles, and shrewd calendar placement. The major players are committing to efficient budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-driven marketing that frame horror entries into all-audience topics.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has solidified as the steady swing in release strategies, a corner that can accelerate when it hits and still mitigate the exposure when it does not. After 2023 signaled to leaders that responsibly budgeted entries can command cultural conversation, 2024 extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and critical darlings highlighted there is space for several lanes, from returning installments to director-led originals that play globally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a lineup that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with obvious clusters, a blend of familiar brands and original hooks, and a recommitted attention on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and platforms.

Executives say the category now acts as a plug-and-play option on the distribution slate. Horror can bow on almost any weekend, generate a tight logline for previews and vertical videos, and punch above weight with demo groups that lean in on opening previews and return through the week two if the movie delivers. On the heels of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm exhibits comfort in that logic. The slate opens with a stacked January window, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a autumn push that reaches into Halloween and afterwards. The grid also shows the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and SVOD players that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and expand at the right moment.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across shared IP webs and storied titles. The companies are not just making another next film. They are trying to present lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a reframed mood or a casting choice that threads a new entry to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the creative leads behind the high-profile originals are leaning into material texture, special makeup and distinct locales. That pairing delivers 2026 a lively combination of home base and freshness, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight titles that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture suggests a fan-service aware bent without recycling the last two entries’ sisters thread. Look for a marketing run rooted in legacy iconography, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a summer relief option, this one will drive general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format making room for quick redirects to whatever shapes the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is elegant, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an algorithmic mate that grows into a killer companion. The date locates it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror strange in-person beats and quick hits that hybridizes companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s work are presented as creative events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. see here The late-month date creates space for Universal to own 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, on-set effects led aesthetic can feel prestige on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror surge that leans into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a dependable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is selling as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around world-building, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

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 advances Eggers’ run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Digital strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that boosts both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances third-party pickups with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using timely promos, October hubs, and collection rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about original films and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be meaningful 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+ keeps selective horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clean: the same somber, 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. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged 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 the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has been successful for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-flavored turn from a fresh helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set help explain the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear 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 advances 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 filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind this year’s genre point to a continued move toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that elevates texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that spotlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid heavier IP. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the palette of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s artificial companion evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: tone-first 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 tough boss claw to survive on a rugged island as the power balance flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

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 renewed vision that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 closed-door haunting chiller that pipes the unease through a kid’s volatile point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family entangled with past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 antique diction and primal menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundscape, and camera work 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.