Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across top streaming platforms

A bone-chilling spectral thriller from dramatist / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old terror when passersby become subjects in a malevolent ordeal. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful tale of perseverance and age-old darkness that will reshape terror storytelling this spooky time. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and claustrophobic fearfest follows five strangers who wake up trapped in a unreachable structure under the malevolent power of Kyra, a troubled woman overtaken by a prehistoric biblical force. Steel yourself to be ensnared by a cinematic display that blends raw fear with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a mainstay pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reversed when the demons no longer descend from an outside force, but rather deep within. This marks the malevolent aspect of every character. The result is a harrowing mind game where the conflict becomes a relentless push-pull between good and evil.


In a bleak landscape, five young people find themselves trapped under the ominous presence and overtake of a elusive figure. As the characters becomes submissive to withstand her will, marooned and hunted by presences inconceivable, they are driven to wrestle with their inner horrors while the final hour relentlessly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and links break, demanding each figure to reflect on their being and the principle of self-determination itself. The pressure accelerate with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that combines otherworldly panic with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to channel pure dread, an spirit beyond time, feeding on human fragility, and confronting a presence that erodes the self when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra was about accessing something deeper than fear. She is in denial until the haunting manifests, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering fans no matter where they are can be part of this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has collected over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to global fright lovers.


Tune in for this visceral voyage through terror. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to explore these nightmarish insights about human nature.


For sneak peeks, production news, and news from those who lived it, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit the movie portal.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. calendar fuses Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

Running from grit-forward survival fare grounded in mythic scripture and onward to series comebacks set beside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be the most dimensioned paired with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors bookend the months with familiar IP, in tandem platform operators crowd the fall with discovery plays paired with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is surfing the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal camp opens the year with a statement play: a refreshed Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson returns, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma in the foreground, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is 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 story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 puffed out backstory. No legacy baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, under Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With sharp marketing, it could translate to 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.

Trend Lines

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming scare season: Sequels, original films, together with A packed Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek The new horror season lines up from the jump with a January logjam, thereafter stretches through the warm months, and carrying into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, novel approaches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are committing to smart costs, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that convert horror entries into broad-appeal conversations.

How the genre looks for 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the most reliable counterweight in release strategies, a category that can spike when it breaks through and still insulate the liability when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that modestly budgeted chillers can lead mainstream conversation, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The energy fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is an opening for different modes, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across companies, with defined corridors, a blend of familiar brands and original hooks, and a recommitted emphasis on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the category now acts as a plug-and-play option on the distribution slate. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, supply a clean hook for marketing and reels, and lead with patrons that show up on previews Thursday and hold through the next pass if the movie connects. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup signals faith in that equation. The slate opens with a stacked January window, then turns to spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a fall corridor that reaches into holiday-adjacent weekends and beyond. The gridline also illustrates the greater integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can platform a title, create conversation, and grow at the timely point.

A reinforcing pattern is brand management across unified worlds and established properties. Distribution groups are not just releasing another follow-up. They are working to present lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a typeface approach that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting move that links a new installment to a classic era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are championing tactile craft, practical gags and distinct locales. That fusion yields 2026 a healthy mix of comfort and shock, which is how the films export.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece entries that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, presenting it as both a baton pass and a back-to-basics character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative stance indicates a fan-service aware bent without going over the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign stacked with heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will hunt mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that evolves into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to revisit off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that melds attachment and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names 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 title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele projects are set up as director events, with a hinting teaser and a later trailer push that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-month date lets the studio to saturate 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has shown that a raw, on-set effects led mix can feel elevated on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror shot that spotlights global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is marketing as a new foundation 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 well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can increase premium screens and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre slate head to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that expands both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog discovery, using featured rows, October hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival deals, slotting horror entries closer to launch and making event-like releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to position each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-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, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is known enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in premium formats. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they change perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later great post to read 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries forecast a continued shift toward physical, site-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 wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and department features before rolling out a tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature execution and sets, which match well with fan-con activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the tone spread creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

End of summer through fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s AI companion grows into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: aura-driven 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 tough boss push to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic shifts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that filters its scares through a child’s wavering POV. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. 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 raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming releases. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine meme-ready beats from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sonics, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.