Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes age-old dread, a nightmare fueled horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

A eerie ghostly fear-driven tale from scriptwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an prehistoric malevolence when unfamiliar people become pawns in a supernatural contest. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of resistance and primordial malevolence that will revolutionize scare flicks this scare season. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and immersive feature follows five people who snap to stranded in a off-grid wooden structure under the hostile control of Kyra, a mysterious girl occupied by a timeless scriptural evil. Get ready to be hooked by a cinematic venture that weaves together visceral dread with biblical origins, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a enduring theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is challenged when the monsters no longer manifest from beyond, but rather from within. This embodies the deepest dimension of each of them. The result is a bone-chilling psychological battle where the intensity becomes a relentless face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a remote no-man's-land, five figures find themselves contained under the possessive control and haunting of a unidentified figure. As the team becomes submissive to evade her rule, stranded and attacked by evils mind-shattering, they are driven to face their raw vulnerabilities while the final hour without pause edges forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and links break, demanding each figure to challenge their being and the nature of personal agency itself. The stakes climb with every second, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes demonic fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into deep fear, an malevolence older than civilization itself, emerging via our fears, and confronting a being that challenges autonomy when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra demanded embodying something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is eerie because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving horror lovers from coast to coast can enjoy this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has garnered over massive response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to viewers around the world.


Experience this cinematic ride through nightmares. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to explore these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and updates from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across media channels and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets American release plan weaves Mythic Possession, indie terrors, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Spanning endurance-driven terror suffused with near-Eastern lore and extending to canon extensions together with acutely observed indies, 2025 appears poised to be the richest along with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios hold down the year with familiar IP, in tandem premium streamers crowd the fall with new voices set against ancestral chills. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, so 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. set for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Steered by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

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

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, 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. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in 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 is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No series drag. 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 remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

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

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, 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, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

Key Trends

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. 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 key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming terror slate: follow-ups, Originals, in tandem with A jammed Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek: The incoming horror slate clusters early with a January glut, and then runs through midyear, and pushing into the year-end corridor, weaving brand equity, creative pitches, and shrewd counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and buzz-forward plans that turn genre releases into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has emerged as the dependable swing in studio lineups, a genre that can surge when it catches and still hedge the downside when it does not. After the 2023 year reassured executives that modestly budgeted genre plays can command cultural conversation, 2024 kept energy high with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The momentum pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and awards-minded projects made clear there is space for many shades, from series extensions to original features that export nicely. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that shows rare alignment across distributors, with intentional bunching, a mix of known properties and novel angles, and a tightened attention on big-screen windows that feed downstream value on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Marketers add the space now acts as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can roll out on nearly any frame, generate a sharp concept for trailers and vertical videos, and outperform with moviegoers that line up on early shows and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the release satisfies. Exiting a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout shows confidence in that dynamic. The year launches with a loaded January window, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while making space for a fall cadence that flows toward Halloween and into post-Halloween. The calendar also shows the tightening integration of specialty distributors and home platforms that can launch in limited release, fuel WOM, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A reinforcing pattern is franchise tending across interlocking continuities and legacy IP. The companies are not just turning out another follow-up. They are working to present lineage with a occasion, whether that is a logo package that suggests a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that anchors a next film to a initial period. At the concurrently, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring tactile craft, practical effects and vivid settings. That pairing affords 2026 a strong blend of known notes and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket projects that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the center, signaling it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-first story. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the directional approach points to a classic-referencing campaign without retreading the last two entries’ family thread. Look for a marketing run leaning on recognizable motifs, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will generate wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever owns the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an machine companion that mutates into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay eerie street stunts and short reels that threads attachment and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a official title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s pictures are sold as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second beat that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, on-set effects led method can feel deluxe on a tight budget. Expect a splatter summer horror surge that embraces global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is this content loaded. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is presenting as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around world-building, and creature design, elements that can fuel premium format interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror centered on immersive craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that maximizes both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the downstream. Prime Video balances acquired titles with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using timely promos, fright rows, and programmed rows to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival additions, locking in horror entries near launch and framing as events rollouts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Look for 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 together, using limited theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is fatigue. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is leading with character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French sensibility from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded 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 Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns announce the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not preclude a same-day experiment from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in premium formats. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries forecast a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers grain and menace rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus click to read more will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and spurs shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which match well with convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month closes 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 click site is stiff, but the mix of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 prime the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited asset reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion escalates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 unyielding boss struggle to survive on a rugged island as the hierarchy shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting story that threads the dread through a young child’s unsteady inner lens. Rating: to be announced. Production: completed. 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 returning creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that skewers today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan bound to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 cost-efficient 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 surprise over-performer 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.

How the year flows for audiences

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

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sound, 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 Shapes Up Strong

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct 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, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.