Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on global platforms

This chilling unearthly scare-fest from dramatist / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an prehistoric terror when unknowns become victims in a hellish ordeal. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing episode of resilience and age-old darkness that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Created by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and tone-heavy motion picture follows five young adults who awaken ensnared in a unreachable cabin under the sinister rule of Kyra, a female lead possessed by a prehistoric sacrosanct terror. Anticipate to be immersed by a cinematic display that melds gut-punch terror with biblical origins, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a classic concept in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the presences no longer originate from elsewhere, but rather from within. This illustrates the grimmest version of all involved. The result is a gripping emotional conflict where the events becomes a constant battle between good and evil.


In a abandoned landscape, five young people find themselves caught under the malicious rule and spiritual invasion of a unknown entity. As the team becomes unable to reject her control, disconnected and chased by creatures impossible to understand, they are driven to endure their inner horrors while the timeline brutally edges forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension intensifies and relationships disintegrate, prompting each participant to challenge their core and the principle of liberty itself. The tension mount with every instant, delivering a horror experience that blends supernatural terror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dig into pure dread, an spirit from prehistory, influencing inner turmoil, and exposing a darkness that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is emotionally raw because it is so internal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring customers no matter where they are can enjoy this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its intro video, which has gathered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to scare fans abroad.


Do not miss this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to explore these haunting secrets about inner darkness.


For sneak peeks, set experiences, and press updates from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across entertainment pages and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts Mixes Mythic Possession, independent shockers, plus IP aftershocks

Across survival horror suffused with legendary theology and onward to IP renewals alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the richest and deliberate year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with known properties, concurrently platform operators stack the fall with new perspectives together with mythic dread. In parallel, indie storytellers is riding the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal camp lights the fuse with a bold swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time, the stakes are raised, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature 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. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

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. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new scare Year Ahead: brand plays, universe starters, together with A packed Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek The upcoming scare slate crams early with a January glut, before it runs through the summer months, and running into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, novel approaches, and tactical alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that convert horror entries into national conversation.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has become the predictable lever in studio calendars, a corner that can accelerate when it clicks and still cushion the downside when it falls short. After 2023 demonstrated to top brass that low-to-mid budget scare machines can drive social chatter, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The tailwind pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and festival-grade titles showed there is space for several lanes, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that perform internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with intentional bunching, a balance of marquee IP and new packages, and a re-energized priority on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and platforms.

Insiders argue the genre now slots in as a utility player on the distribution slate. Horror can bow on virtually any date, provide a quick sell for ad units and shorts, and overperform with audiences that appear on previews Thursday and sustain through the sophomore frame if the offering connects. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence underscores belief in that equation. The slate kicks off with a crowded January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall cadence that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The program also underscores the continuing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and move wide at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and classic IP. The studios are not just releasing another next film. They are looking to package lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that announces a new tone or a talent selection that connects a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are favoring tactile craft, practical gags and grounded locations. That combination offers the 2026 slate a strong blend of brand comfort and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two marquee moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a succession moment and a return-to-roots character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a roots-evoking mode without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate mass reach through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an algorithmic mate that shifts into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-form creative that threads affection and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-first strategy can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror surge that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, maintaining a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is presenting as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around canon, and monster aesthetics, elements that can lift PLF interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on textural authenticity and language, this time circling werewolf lore. The company has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is glowing.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on established tracks. The Universal horror run window into copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a pacing that elevates both week-one demand and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library pulls, using seasonal hubs, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to stretch the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival acquisitions, securing horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around arrivals with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 arc with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is tight: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a cinema-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Be ready 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 small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, 2026 bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on marquee value. The question, as ever, is staleness. The go-to fix is to market each entry as a new angle. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the package is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years help explain the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 shot in tandem, permits marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind this slate telegraph a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that withholds plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

Annual flow

January is jammed. 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 foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month ends 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 menu of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Project 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 DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s intelligent navigate here companion becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

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 altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: mood-led 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 push to survive on a cut-off island as the pecking order turns and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-front survival film 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 renewed take that returns the monster to fright, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting chiller that pipes the unease through a child’s uneven subjective lens. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. 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 reboot that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime buzz. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household lashed to past horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and primal menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 launches. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine meme-ready beats from test screenings, curated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

The slot calculus is real. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, clearing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 lower and mid-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 capitalize on those pockets. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, 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 pattern and spread. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 shudders sell the seats.