Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primeval horror, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An unnerving paranormal fright fest from narrative craftsman / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an long-buried terror when newcomers become puppets in a supernatural ordeal. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a intense chronicle of endurance and mythic evil that will revolutionize horror this autumn. Visualized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and moody tale follows five strangers who come to locked in a off-grid structure under the unfriendly rule of Kyra, a cursed figure claimed by a timeless sacrosanct terror. Brace yourself to be drawn in by a narrative experience that intertwines bodily fright with biblical origins, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a legendary pillar in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the malevolences no longer come externally, but rather inside their minds. This mirrors the deepest shade of each of them. The result is a relentless emotional conflict where the suspense becomes a perpetual face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a barren landscape, five young people find themselves sealed under the ominous influence and haunting of a unidentified being. As the companions becomes defenseless to withstand her power, severed and tracked by creatures indescribable, they are pushed to encounter their emotional phantoms while the deathwatch without pause ticks onward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust deepens and relationships dissolve, driving each character to doubt their true nature and the concept of liberty itself. The threat magnify with every tick, delivering a frightening tale that merges mystical fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke raw dread, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and testing a power that erodes the self when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra was about accessing something darker than pain. She is ignorant until the demon emerges, and that conversion is shocking because it is so unshielded.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing streamers no matter where they are can get immersed in this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has pulled in over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, giving access to the movie to lovers of terror across nations.


Join this life-altering path of possession. Join *Young & Cursed* this launch day to experience these haunting secrets about free will.


For previews, making-of footage, and news from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s Turning Point: 2025 U.S. Slate Mixes archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, alongside franchise surges

Across grit-forward survival fare drawn from primordial scripture as well as series comebacks as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is lining up as the most textured plus calculated campaign year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners stabilize the year with known properties, even as premium streamers crowd the fall with unboxed visions set against legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is surfing the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal opens the year with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, Warner’s pipeline bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: throwback unease, trauma driven plotting, plus otherworld rules that chill. Here the stakes rise, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

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’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

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

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release 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 stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. 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 brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming fear release year: continuations, new stories, paired with A loaded Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The arriving terror cycle stacks immediately with a January crush, and then runs through midyear, and carrying into the winter holidays, blending IP strength, new voices, and strategic calendar placement. The major players are focusing on tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and short-form initiatives that position these offerings into all-audience topics.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the sturdy lever in studio calendars, a vertical that can scale when it lands and still safeguard the drag when it does not. After the 2023 year showed greenlighters that lean-budget entries can galvanize the zeitgeist, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The upswing extended into 2025, where resurrections and awards-minded projects proved there is a market for many shades, from legacy continuations to original features that play globally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a lineup that appears tightly organized across companies, with strategic blocks, a blend of brand names and untested plays, and a recommitted strategy on cinema windows that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and platforms.

Marketers add the genre now functions as a versatile piece on the release plan. The genre can arrive on many corridors, furnish a clear pitch for spots and short-form placements, and outperform with ticket buyers that respond on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the next weekend if the picture connects. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 mapping reflects confidence in that logic. The slate commences with a loaded January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a fall corridor that extends to the fright window and into November. The calendar also shows the deeper integration of arthouse labels and streaming partners that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and long-running brands. The studios are not just releasing another next film. They are looking to package lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a new tone or a talent selection that connects a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the marquee originals are prioritizing on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That blend delivers 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and surprise, which is what works overseas.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount plants an early flag with two marquee bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-centered film. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a roots-evoking treatment without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout built on franchise iconography, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also dusts off 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will go after mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever tops the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, soulful, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man purchases an synthetic partner that mutates into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that mixes longing and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a official title to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are framed as director events, with a teaser that holds back and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The spooky-season slot gives Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a tactile, makeup-driven method can feel big on a efficient spend. Look for a red-band summer horror surge that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, carrying a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 sharper mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can lift large-format demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a structure that maximizes both launch urgency and trial spikes in the tail. Prime Video pairs library titles with cross-border buys and brief theater runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix keeps flexible about originals and festival grabs, slotting horror entries closer to drop and staging as events drops with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a laddered of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has been willing to take on select projects with prestige directors or name-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday slot to scale. That positioning has delivered for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Plan on 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 together, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use cultural cachet. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The near-term solution is to package each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is known enough to build pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps contextualize the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not stop a day-date move from thriving when the brand was sticky. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in premium large format. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, enables marketing to bridge entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 slate signal a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel primary. Look for trailers that foreground razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that shine in top rooms.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 marquee brands. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the mix of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth carries.

Early-year through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that favor idea over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 journeys 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: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 demanding boss battle to survive on a rugged island as the power balance shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 renewed take that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s material craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting premise that leverages the unease of a child’s shaky point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-financed and A-list fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Get More Info Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further widens again, with a another family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: to be announced. Production: underway. 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-accurate language and raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. 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, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will jostle across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 dark-horse 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 use those gaps. 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. 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient screen counts, 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 visual texture, soundscape, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.