Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a hair raising horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

This eerie otherworldly suspense film from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an ancient force when guests become conduits in a diabolical trial. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful story of overcoming and mythic evil that will alter fear-driven cinema this October. Crafted by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and shadowy thriller follows five lost souls who come to caught in a isolated house under the malevolent command of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a biblical-era biblical force. Ready yourself to be gripped by a theatrical presentation that melds primitive horror with biblical origins, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a recurring trope in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the entities no longer come outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This embodies the darkest layer of the group. The result is a riveting emotional conflict where the emotions becomes a unforgiving battle between innocence and sin.


In a isolated landscape, five teens find themselves isolated under the ghastly grip and domination of a unidentified character. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to fight her dominion, abandoned and hunted by terrors inconceivable, they are forced to deal with their raw vulnerabilities while the doomsday meter harrowingly draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion deepens and links disintegrate, prompting each participant to scrutinize their being and the integrity of volition itself. The danger magnify with every tick, delivering a cinematic nightmare that weaves together spiritual fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to tap into instinctual horror, an darkness that predates humanity, channeling itself through human fragility, and confronting a curse that challenges autonomy when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra involved tapping into something darker than pain. She is ignorant until the spirit seizes her, and that change is eerie because it is so private.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing viewers from coast to coast can watch this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has received over 100K plays.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to scare fans abroad.


Don’t miss this gripping descent into hell. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these nightmarish insights about free will.


For previews, making-of footage, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s major pivot: the 2025 season domestic schedule weaves archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, alongside IP aftershocks

Moving from survival horror drawn from legendary theology through to series comebacks and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the most textured plus blueprinted year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses lay down anchors by way of signature titles, at the same time digital services stack the fall with debut heat together with primordial unease. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is catching the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are targeted, accordingly 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. timed for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by 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.

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

Dials to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The 2026 genre year to come: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, and also A Crowded Calendar optimized for screams

Dek: The emerging horror calendar packs from the jump with a January wave, subsequently flows through the warm months, and pushing into the festive period, weaving franchise firepower, novel approaches, and smart counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are doubling down on lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that shape these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the most reliable tool in release strategies, a pillar that can lift when it lands and still protect the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to studio brass that modestly budgeted pictures can drive social chatter, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The carry flowed into 2025, where resurrections and elevated films showed there is an opening for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a schedule that is strikingly coherent across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a pairing of marquee IP and novel angles, and a tightened priority on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a utility player on the distribution slate. The genre can arrive on a wide range of weekends, deliver a sharp concept for marketing and shorts, and overperform with audiences that appear on previews Thursday and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the entry lands. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout underscores assurance in that equation. The year commences with a heavy January band, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a late-year stretch that extends to the fright window and afterwards. The map also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialized labels and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and scale up at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and established properties. Major shops are not just producing another installment. They are working to present connection with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that broadcasts a tonal shift or a casting move that connects a new installment to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are leaning into tactile craft, real effects and site-specific worlds. That convergence yields the 2026 slate a solid mix of assurance and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount plants an early flag with two prominent projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a classic-referencing framework without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push stacked with iconic art, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will generate mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever dominates the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is straightforward, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew creepy live activations and micro spots that mixes love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are treated as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a raw, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel premium on a efficient spend. Expect a grime-caked summer horror hit that maximizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio places two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is selling as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both players and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can fuel format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on minute detail and period language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that expands both launch urgency and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video combines licensed films with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, fright rows, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about in-house releases and festival additions, timing horror entries on shorter runways and elevating as drops premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a two-step of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a selective basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with name filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through select festivals if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a set 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 debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using targeted theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The potential drawback, as ever, is fatigue. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years outline the model. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not obstruct a dual release from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind this slate signal a continued move toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered 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 weblink exports well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that centers an original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature and environment design, which are ideal for expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month finishes 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 stiff, but the palette of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion grows into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 push to survive on a desolate island as the power balance shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to chill, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and rising horror dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that interrogates the chill of a child’s fragile interpretations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-grade and headline-actor led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family linked to past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: pending. Production: proceeding. 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 era-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit 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 track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, 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 keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundscape, and 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, Ready To Roar

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.