Antediluvian Dread Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising thriller, landing October 2025 across premium platforms

This blood-curdling spiritual terror film from scriptwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an long-buried dread when foreigners become tools in a supernatural ceremony. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish journey of perseverance and archaic horror that will redefine terror storytelling this fall. Realized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and emotionally thick tale follows five figures who wake up locked in a isolated dwelling under the malignant sway of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old Old Testament spirit. Ready yourself to be seized by a audio-visual ride that integrates intense horror with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a long-standing theme in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the spirits no longer form from a different plane, but rather internally. This echoes the grimmest facet of the victims. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the tension becomes a ongoing battle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a wilderness-stricken wilderness, five young people find themselves trapped under the dark dominion and possession of a unknown woman. As the victims becomes unresisting to deny her control, severed and tracked by entities beyond comprehension, they are thrust to reckon with their worst nightmares while the timeline mercilessly edges forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust escalates and teams shatter, driving each soul to contemplate their character and the philosophy of autonomy itself. The risk intensify with every second, delivering a frightening tale that fuses mystical fear with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to explore primal fear, an presence that existed before mankind, influencing emotional fractures, and highlighting a curse that redefines identity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was about accessing something past sanity. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that evolution is haunting because it is so visceral.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that households anywhere can engage with this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, offering the tale to international horror buffs.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these dark realities about free will.


For cast commentary, director cuts, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. lineup fuses legend-infused possession, indie terrors, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Spanning endurance-driven terror suffused with ancient scripture as well as series comebacks plus focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted and intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors hold down the year with familiar IP, even as streamers crowd the fall with unboxed visions as well as ancestral chills. In parallel, horror’s indie wing is surfing the tailwinds of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the base, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal sets the tone with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with 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 is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Authored and directed 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 terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in 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. That is a savvy move. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

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.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The next scare slate: Sequels, Originals, as well as A stacked Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek: The brand-new horror calendar packs in short order with a January cluster, subsequently carries through summer corridors, and running into the December corridor, weaving marquee clout, original angles, and calculated offsets. Studio marketers and platforms are embracing efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and short-form initiatives that frame genre titles into all-audience topics.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror has grown into the steady lever in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it lands and still protect the downside when it misses. After 2023 proved to greenlighters that cost-conscious chillers can drive the zeitgeist, 2024 kept energy high with high-profile filmmaker pieces and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam extended into 2025, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is demand for different modes, from returning installments to director-led originals that resonate abroad. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of established brands and untested plays, and a revived strategy on theater exclusivity that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Marketers add the genre now behaves like a plug-and-play option on the calendar. Horror can kick off on virtually any date, yield a grabby hook for trailers and reels, and outperform with patrons that show up on opening previews and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the film satisfies. On the heels of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm underscores assurance in that approach. The year kicks off with a front-loaded January run, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while carving room for a late-year stretch that reaches into the Halloween frame and into early November. The calendar also shows the stronger partnership of arthouse labels and streaming partners that can grow from platform, stoke social talk, and scale up at the optimal moment.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across unified worlds and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just mounting another continuation. They are aiming to frame continuity with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a new vibe or a cast configuration that connects a next film to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the marquee originals are championing hands-on technique, special makeup and concrete locations. That blend yields 2026 a lively combination of recognition and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two headline bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the focus, positioning the film as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance signals a nostalgia-forward strategy without looping the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout built on brand visuals, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 Source on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves devotion and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an PR pop closer to the first trailer. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has proven that a tactile, practical-effects forward approach can feel prestige on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror hit that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is describing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both players and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around canon, and creature work, elements that can boost format premiums and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by careful craft and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a pacing that boosts both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the after-window. Prime Video will mix licensed films with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, fright rows, and staff picks to stretch the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival acquisitions, confirming horror entries near launch and coalescing around launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of precision releases and short jumps to platform that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful 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+ continues to weigh horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has signaled readiness to board select projects with name filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 slate with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, refined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a big-screen first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps frame the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not block a simultaneous release test from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates his comment is here texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which play well in convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is heavy. Universal’s 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 macro-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring seed summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans franchise. 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 late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card use.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s machine mate unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 difficult boss try to survive on a uninhabited island as the pecking order swivels and unease intensifies. 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 from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, anchored by Cronin’s practical effects and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that filters its scares through a child’s flickering point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family caught in past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving forward. 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 time-true diction and primal menace. Rating: pending. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 and why now

Three hands-on forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and pared-down 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will stack across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The sleeper-hit hunt 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 flow and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sound field, and visuals 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, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.